Chapter 56: Two lies and a truth

As Quintessence flowed into the Challenge Dungeon, no doubt headed for Tamina, Rylan felt the corners of his mouth curling up and his spine straightening.

And that despite his suspicion that Soren had just lied to his face about not having found the statue from Rylan’s memory-vision yet.

“Am I the only one who didn’t Rank-Up a Skill inside the Challenge Dungeon?” the young noble complained. “Now I feel left behind!”

“Actually,” Rylan said, doing his best to keep his voice casual, “I suspect she got Sword-Fighting.”

“Nah, she definitely Ranked-Up her shield Skill,” Soren stated confidently. “She’s been practising with that thing so much...”

“I guess we’ll see,” Rylan replied, his smile feeling a little stiff despite his best efforts to come off as relaxed.

Why would he lie about it? It doesn’t make sense!

Rylan wasn’t making much progress on the conundrum. Thankfully, it didn’t take much longer for the portal’s solid-seeming surface to start to shimmer, then bulge, before Tamina came striding out with a confident smirk.

“Congratulations, Thar Tammi!” Soren exclaimed, lightly jumping to his feet in the floaty fog.

Rylan got up in a more sedate manner, still a bit wobbly from his possible concussion, despite the soothing warmth of Ethereon’s recovery acceleration still pumping through his veins.

Tamina smiled, but shook her head. “Not sure what you’re congratulating me for. I failed the challenge.”

“Ah, that’s too bad,” Rylan said, trying and failing to gauge whether Tamina was actually upset about it. “What happened?”

She shrugged, not seeming too bothered. “Ran out of mana, had to forfeit.”

Soren clicked his tongue. “Oh well. Like you said, there’s no shame in failing a Challenge Dungeon. And at least you got a Rank-Up out of it, right?”

“I think you mean a new Skill,” Rylan said, a corner of his mouth quirking up.

She shot each of them a cool look. “If you’re quite done, I suggest we get going. Daylight is burning and I’d like to get back before Nazyr decides to make dinner without us.”

Soren pulled a face. “He wouldn’t, right? Fog, let’s hurry!”

He hurried over to the stairs, gesturing at them impatiently.

Shaking his head, Rylan followed at a regular pace, with Tamina falling in besides him.

“I know you can’t comment on it,” Rylan said more quietly. “So you don’t have to respond, but seriously... congratulations on your new Skill or Rank-Up.”

Tamina just smiled, and gestured for him to ascend the stairs ahead of her. “Patients first.”

Rylan rolled his eyes, winced at the resulting stabbing pain in his head, and with a sigh, went ahead.

[Ehm, Boss, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve got to tell you something...]

Rylan frowned minutely. ‘What is it, Stan?’

[Well, I know how much you hate lies,] Stan blurted out. [And, ehm, I think Tamina is lying too; she’s got one of those Enhancers tucked away inside a little compartment in her metal arm!]

‘No kidding? Well... good for her!’

Rylan immediately resolved to keep it a secret, so as not to cause her any trouble. I should probably not even tell Soren; he’s terrible at keeping secrets... as demonstrated.

[Huh. Your bloodpump isn’t accelerating, and you don’t sound mad...] Stan noted. [Aren’t you mad, Boss?]

‘No, I’m all right, Stan,’ Rylan replied. ‘It’s... well, it’s not too bad of a lie.’

[It’s not?]

‘It’s complicated, Stan. Not all lies are bad, necessarily. Plus, she probably didn’t have much of a choice in this case.’

[Yeah, I’m not following, Boss.]

Rylan sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he’d probably be explaining the intricacies of white lies, privacy, and Tamina’s Contract most of the way back. ‘All right, so it’s like this...’

Rylan didn’t have a lot of mana available for training that night, and his body was all kinds of sore, but he couldn’t resist trying out his new Augmentation, so he trudged along anyway.

Tamina checked out his eyes with a light again, and decided his concussion was probably mostly resolved, and he could do some light exercise.

That sounded just fine with Rylan.

When they started with their usual spar, however, it quickly became apparent that it was anything but usual.

The white glow around Tamina’s longer reed was bright and steady, with none of the usual flickering. Upon seeing it, Rylan immediately snapped his gaze over to Soren to gloat.

“All right, all right,” Soren said with a sigh. “You win, Ryles. She’s got Sword-Fighting.”

“No comment,” Tamina replied with a barely there smirk, as she sank into a ready stance. “Come at me, Ry.”

 Rylan swallowed, but pushed some more mana into his shorter reed, and moved forward. Sparring against an actual Skill was a little awkward, and Tamina often had to wait for him to slowly recharge his reed, but she was kind about it and never hurried him.

When his mana ran low, they brought out her shield for Rylan to try his new Flying Kick against.

He had some trouble at first, as jumping and kicking with two legs led to some rather awkward landings. After some practise, however, he learned to skew the mana between his two feet, using one to jump and the other to kick.

Still, there was very little he could do against Tamina’s shield with the paltry amount of mana he had available. The field emanating from its surface slowed him down, and the layer of mana from her Skill absorbed the impact of his new Augmentation without a hitch.

Honestly, with the combination of her runegear, Shield-Fighting, and Footwork Skills, Rylan reckoned even a fully charged kick might not be enough to get her to budge.

I should learn how to send more mana to a single foot... so much to practise.

Rylan was finding it hard to focus however, as every time he caught a glimpse of Soren, his mood soured.

He slept poorly that night, spending most of his time tossing and turning, thinking up outlandish theories.

Perhaps Soren had gotten jealous due to Rylan’s acquisition of Stan, and was trying to squeeze Maris for something of equal value before he showed Rylan the way. Or maybe he’d gotten overexcited when he found the statue, had gone ahead to explore, and discovered some awful secret that he was trying to protect Rylan from...

Round and round it went. Rylan drove himself half-crazy, dithering back and forth between confronting Soren and thinking up some scheme to try and follow him, like pretending he had a fever, or was still dizzy from his concussion... which was not even entirely untrue.

The restless night did not provide any answers, and he got up the next morning feeling rather cranky. He could tell he was being unusually silent and irritable over breakfast, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

When Rylan stomped off to use the outhouse, Stan actually Recalled into his hand unannounced, something he hadn’t done in quite a while.

[Uh, sorry Boss,] Stan said as Rylan pinched his nose, trying really hard not to snap at the spiritgear. [You were just hurrying off so fast, I was worried what Tamina said about memory issues could be true and you’d forgotten about me...]

It’s not his fault. Stan has abandonment issues. Deep breaths.

‘I’m not going to forget you Stan,’ Rylan sent. ‘You don’t need to worry about that, all right?’

[I know, Boss, I know; it’s just that Tamina said all those things about head trauma sometimes causing memory loss, and well, I guess I panicked...]

Rylan let out a sigh. It was hard to stay mad at Stan in moments like these. ‘It’s fine, Stan. But we still need to go hunting today, so try not to waste any more mana, all right?’

Prey was getting scarcer around the section of ruins they usually frequented, so even with Stan’s help, they were forced to venture deeper than they’d used to.

When the spiritgear finally alerted him to something suitable—an extra large redgill that was floating in the distance, munching on some moss on top of a pile of rubble—Rylan didn’t hesitate.

He turned towards it, hefted Stan back, and threw. Unfortunately, the fogfish seemed to tire of his meal right at that moment, and with a flap of its massive fins, backed off from the blue moss.

The glowing spiritgear passed right in front of it, probably giving the fogfish a good look at its reflection for the first time in its life, as well as an incredible scare.

“Fog!” Rylan cursed, drawing his companions’ attention as their prey immediately darted off.

Unwilling to give up, Rylan raised his hand behind his head, tracking the fish with his eyes as he urged Stan to Recall with a mental tug on the node—not that the blade really needed the reminder. The spiritgear reappeared in his hand only a split second later.

The moment Rylan’s fingers closed around the handle, he whipped his arm forward again, as hard as he could, hoping for Stan to catch up to the fogfish before it could disappear around a distant corner.

Stan flew perfectly still, his edge gleaming in the diffuse light as he sped forward. His path crossed that of the fish right before it could disappear behind another ruin, sinking into its tail with a thunk that was audible even from this distance.

“Nice throw, milord!” Yuel said, lowering his harpooncaster again.

With a satisfied smile, Rylan lifted his hand and tugged on the node. However, what he got back from Stan... was mounting panic.

[Boss, it’s... it’s not working; I can’t Recall!]

Immediately, Rylan realised his mistake. During their mishap that morning, Stan had used up some of his mana and it hadn’t all recovered yet. The spiritblade had only a little over one point of mana left now, and he was well over a hundred and fifty feet out.

Worse, he was still moving.

Not only had Stan transferred all of his momentum to the fogfish, he could tell from the stream of sensations Stan was sending that the damn beast was still quite alive, and actually trying to swim off with Stan stuck in his tail.

And the spiritgear was freaking out. [Nonononono, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening! WHY ISN’T IT WORKING?!]

Cursing once more, Rylan broke into a sprint. ‘You’re low on mana, Stan, just hold on—I’m coming!’

“Ry!” Tamina exclaimed in alarm. “Wait up!”

Rylan wasn’t listening, however, as the fogfish disappeared around the corner, still accelerating, and the sensations coming from Stan grew more and more alarming. He wasn’t sure what Stan was doing, but it was causing the spiritgear increasing amounts of pain.

‘Stan, Stop! You’re hurting yourself!’

Rylan ran as fast as he could, but he was still barely catching up.

[I don’t care if it hurts, Boss, I’m not going to be alone ag—STOP SWIMMING YOU STUPID FOGFISH!]

The fish, unfortunately, wasn’t listening. Rather, it was accelerating, and even swimming upwards, a direction Rylan couldn’t follow it in.

What if it just swims away? What if Stan actually hurts himself?!

Sometime after Rylan had sprained his first Skill, Tamina had shared a story over dinner about a Quinthar who’d truly pushed his spirit too far. Somehow, the man had started converting the Quintessence that made up his spirit itself into mana—the same way Cubes could be converted into mana.

Apparently, he was a living vegetable now, spending his life in a rocking chair, staring out of the window with drool trickling down his jaw as his relatives took care of him.

The thought of Stan doing something similar sent Rylan’s worry into overdrive, and he instinctively grabbed onto the node and tried to send Stan strength, or hope, or-or something!

Instead, he found himself sending a trickle... of mana.

His heart soared, and he pumped his legs with renewed vigour as he tried to close the distance with Stan just a little bit.

‘Stan, I’m sending you more mana! Hang in there!’

As he said that, Rylan threw the floodgates open, pushing as much of his mana into their connection as it would take. The spiritual bond clearly wasn’t used to it, and appeared to be straining under the stress, but the mana was flowing.

That’s 0.1 point... 0.2... 0.3...

On the other side, Stan at first seemed confused at the power flooding in, but then he started drinking it in gratefully, the painful straining he was doing lessening to some degree.

‘That’s it, we’ll get there Stan!’

As the mana kept pouring in, Stan’s tugging on the node grew proportionally. From what Rylan could sense coming from the other side, the spiritgear was vibrating harder and harder, causing the muscles of the fogfish to lock up in pain.

Only when Rylan had poured in over 1.5 points of mana, did Rylan finally—and clearer than ever—feel the runework activate. He skidded to a halt, only barely able to lift his hand in time. Rather than the usual quiet pop, however, there was a whoosh, followed by a displacement of air that ruffled Rylan’s hair as Stan materialised... along with the huge fogfish that was still stuck on his blade.

[Boss! We did it!] Stan cheered. [Woah, did I just... TAKE THAT, YOU STUPID FOGFISH!]

For a moment, Rylan blanked on what to do. Then the fogfish started to try and wriggle free again, so he quickly drew Stan out, grabbed onto its tail, and started wrestling it to the ground. Only when he’d securely pinned it down under a knee, did he draw his cleaver and decisively chop into its neck.

It took three more chops for the huge fish to stop moving.

[That’s right, Boss, you show the bastard!] Stan cheered maniacally. [Oh... I’m feeling kinda... sleepy now...]

Rylan swiftly turned his worried attention to Stan, retrieving the blade from the sand, but all seemed in order—even with his spirit. He was just very low on mana. ‘That’s all right, Stan, you have a good rest now.’

He could probably use some sleep to digest all this excitement...

“Ry?!” Tamina called from a distance. “Where the fog are you?!”

“Over here!” he yelled back, getting to his feet and looking back to see her silhouette turning the corner.

She clearly spotted him and hurried over, relief evident on her face. “Don’t you know better than to run off in the fog by now? What the fog were you thinking?”

Rylan huffed out a breath. “I threw Stan a little too far, and had to run to catch up. But look: we’ve got dinner!”

She let out a sigh, her eyes swivelling around as she took in their surroundings. “That’s all well and fine, as long as we don’t become dinner. Seriously, Ry, you’ve had a crab up your butt all morning, and now this? You can’t act like this out here! I can’t protect you like this, and I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on!”

The orange light from Yuel’s lantern was approaching around the corner, clearly drawn by their raised voices.

Rylan made a snap decision. He took a step closer to Tamina, and lowered his voice to a whisper. “There is some stuff I’d like to tell you... But I can’t really think of a good time or place.”

Tamina narrowed her eyes, scrutinising him with an unreadable expression on her face.

“Milord? Milady?!” Yuel called out.

“Over here, Yuel!” Tamina called back, before leaning over to Rylan’s ear, her breath warm on his clammy skin. “Tonight, after dinner, offer Nazyr a night off from the dishes. I’ll join you, and you can tell me whatever you like.”

For some reason, the tone of her voice sent a shiver up Rylan’s spine.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^