Ch 28 - part 2- 

A few hours of hiking, the beautiful rolling grassy hills, and monster hunting was enough to take me over the edge to Level Ten, at last! I’d felt like I was just on the cusp for days, so it was a relief to feel my soul finally surge with the telltale swell of power. 

Eir

Human

Lv 10 Chimera Summoner 

Body: 10

Mind: 15 (10+5)

Spirit: 25 (10+15)

Attribute points: 20!

Skill points: 3!

My spirit stat was really starting to pull away from the others. I was a little bit of a glass cannon, but with my growing comfort with [Spectral Waltz] and [Tempest strike], I was a much more difficult focus target than my stats would indicate. 

That would be even more true, if my next Familiar was a tank. And I finally had the Skill Points to unlock her. 

“DING!” I crowed happily. 

My classmates sent up a little cheer, to both Jennie and my surprise. Hera came and congratulated me on the Level Up. 

“This puts you at Ten, correct?” Hera asked, slapping me heartily on the ass and grinning with her perfect shining teeth. 

“Yep!” I squeaked, trying to take it in stride. 

“Will you still be interested in diving together this weekend, if you get a Tank Familiar, or will you be delving solo as soon as possible?” She asked, cutting straight to the point. 

She didn’t even seem like she was trying to force me one way or the other. Just genuinely interested in my plans. 

“I wouldn’t drop the group at the last minute like that.” I muttered, casting an eye at Jennie. She was still not totally comfortable in Hera’s presence. And I understood. There was a lot of presence. 

“Good!” She placed a hand on my shoulder and the other on Jennie’s. 

“I think I might be about to take a Binding Vow.” I blurted. 

Jennie wheeled on me, looking alarmed between me and my Familiars in turn. 

“Sweet.” Hera nodded. “What kind?”

“To uhh…” I had not thought this through. WHY had I told her this?? 

Why had I told the obnoxiously talented, super supportive, mega babe about the ridiculous idea Lorna had put in my head? 

I shook my head at my own stupidity. 

Keep your weird Class under wraps, remember, dumdum?

“Uh huh?” Hera prompted. 

“To uhhh… use the first Catalysts I loot. And only those. Full-on trust fate, you know?” I mumbled. 

Hera gawked. She looked impressed. And it felt… really really good. 

“You’re crazy!” She said, punching my arm. “I love it! Wow. Be careful, Binding Vows are for real. And Catalysts are really important. But what am I saying. You’re the best student in the year. You know what you’re doing. That’s awesome!” 

She grinned. “We are going to have a great Delve this weekend. I can feel it!” 

She gave us a squeeze, and strode off to her friends, who would be the other two members this weekend. I gave Ravale and Nyke a little wave. Ravale, the healer, nodded in a pretty friendly way, I thought. Nyke just stared like I was a movie on a screen, and then started talking to Hera. 

“Do not take a Binding Vow, especially not one that stupid?!” Jennie hissed, as soon as attention was off of us. “Why are you saying this?” 

“It was Lorna’s idea.” I passed the blame, sheepishly. 

“LORNA?!” Jennie turned her ire on my ghost girl, who had the sense to float backwards a few inches. "Explain.” She said thunderously. 

Lorna hesitated. Which was a novelty, in and of itself. Considered pauses? All the time. Thoughtful reverie? Almost constantly. Hesitation…? I wasn’t sure I had ever seen her do it. 

“Jennie, I have a secret.” I said.

I felt bad for putting her on the spot, and getting us into this mess in the first place. 

Jennie turned to me expectantly. 

“It…” I glanced at my Familiars, prodding through our bond. A brief conversation in silent emotional signals passed between us. Votes landed ‘yes.’ 

But I still wanted to be circumspect, with people around. 

“Remember what we talked about last night?” I asked softly. 

“Yes….?” Jennie suddenly looked excited and intrigued. 

“I … Lorna… We think that it might really please Chaos if I sort of…gave her some trust. An offering, if you will.” I meandered. 

Jennie nodded, brows working furiously as she digested. 

Finally, “Ok.” She gulped. 

“Ok.” She looked a little green around the gills. 

“Ok.” She looked horrified. 

“You good there, sweetheart?” Lucy asked, rubbing Jennie’s arm coaxingly. “Need some water? Eir’s got a bottle.” 

“I’m ok.” Jennie said, looking like she was trying to do a long division in her head. 

“You broke her.” Violette said, dryly. 

“Not helping Vi!!” I snapped, fanning my hands at Jennie’s face. 

Violette strode up and turned around, and lashed her tail over Jennie’s face. 

The rogue flinched in shock. 

“Violette.” I started to admonish. 

“Wait. Chill.” Violette shushed me and waved her long fox tail over Jennie’s front again. 

“It’s so SOFT!” Jennie marvelled, catching hold of the serpentine fluff that was basically feather dusting her. She rubbed her cheek experimentally, and her expression became rapturous. 

“There you go.” Violette smirked. “Now, pet me and calm down.” 

To my surprise, Jennie did. In moments, she was stroking Violette’s tail, and talking calmly as we walked in the back of our spread out group of green beans.

“You need to be very, very careful about who you tell this to, Eir.” She told me sternly. “No blurting it out to Hera the second she bats her eyelashes at you, or whatever it is going on between you two.” 

“There’s nothing between us!” I squeaked,”Ha! That’s crazy. She’s Hera!” 

That was explanation enough. 

“Ok.” Jennie said flatly. “Just don’t go spilling your beans any more. Now this Binding Vow idea….” 

Lorna shifted guiltily.

“It does make a certain kind of sense.” Jennie admitted, reluctantly. 

Lorna smiled, and drifted back to the group, confident of her safety again. 

“In a throw-yourself-off-a-cliff-and-call-it-a-trust-fall kind of way.” Jennie clarified. 

Lorna and I shuffled guiltily. Which was impressive for Lorna, as a floating ghost. 

“But….” Jennie said hesitantly. “I do think it could work.” 

“You do?!” I asked incredulously. 

“The Catalysts that make sense for you are all so gods damned rare!” Jennie said, exasperatedly. “I’ve been reading, and I can’t find a more high maintenance Class! You are not a cheap date, dude!” 

I blushed. Jennie had been reading? Doing research on my problem? Without me even asking or mentioning it to her?

“You’re hopeless, basically. You’ll never afford rocks like those while we are at school. So you either hamstring yourself with Catalysts that only kind of fit your Class… orrrrrrrr.” 

“Or I find a way to get super, super lucky.” I finished. 

Jennie shrugged. “It’s honestly sounding more necessary the more I think about it.” 

“Lorna’s pretty smart, huh?” I mumbled, eyebrows raised. 

Jennie looked guilty. “Sorry for biting your head off.” 

Lorna gave her a solemn bow. “Accepted.” 

“So are we all on board for the Binding Vow plan?’ I asked, looking around at my Familiars. 

“You’re going to do it RIGHT NOW?!” Jennie screamed. 

Violette repeatedly bashed her in the face with her tail, like the world’s softest pillow attack. 

“Calm. Down. And. Be. Quieter.” She commanded as she whipped her hips back and forth to really put some speed on her strikes. 

It didn’t matter. The damn thing was like a pink and white cloud in the shape of a tail. It probably felt great.

In the end, we decided to put off making the vow until my next summoning, which would give us time to give due consideration into the exact wording. 

Didn't want to accidentally ruin my Class with a careless phrase. And I definitely wanted to be able to relinquish a catalyst, still.

The extra time to consider brought Jennie back to a level of distress we found acceptable, and between Lucy and Violette('s tail) we had her smiling again in fairly short order. 

~~~~~~~

The sun was starting to get very flirty with the blushing horizon, as our afternoon of traipsing lightly wooded foothills came to a close. As a class, we'd killed hundreds of monsters, and were able to enjoy the slow sunset splashing crimson and gold over the grass, in relative peace. It had been a far more severe emergence than anyone had been expecting, which was awesome for us. I wasn't the only one who'd managed to level up on a mission that was supposed to just be getting our feet wet, and let us chat with a working team of professional Wayfinders. 

We found the Dungeon at leisure, by wandering the hillside. It was roiling, liquid blackness stretched between the split trunk of a great lightning struck tree. I felt a tinge of regret for the tree's sake. It had obviously been there a long time and it was a shame to see it rent apart like-

Bernsley brought us all to an abrupt halt, surveying the area. His general air of academic fascination was instantly replaced with dangerous focus. 

The change was so stark and alarming that even the most talkative of us shut their mouths and went on alert. 

“Retreat to Bayloft.” Bernsley ordered, harshly. He produced a metal gauntlet and put it on. Metal scales rippled out from it, covering his body, and encasing him in steely armor in moments. 

“What’s wrong, professor?” Hera asked, readying her javelin. 

“Retreat.” Bernsley repeated harshly. “That’s an orde–”

Figures started emerging from the Dungeon. But they were not the guild Wayfinders who’d been dispatched to close the emergence. They weren’t human at all. 

Tall, cloven hooved, curling horned creatures in Wayfinder armors emerged one after another, eyes glittering like coals.

I felt a jolt of concern from Lorna, and saw her eyes widen as a single surprised word popped from her lips. 

“Netherim!”