“Joan, you’re pouting,” Chase said with a small chuckle.

“No, I’m not,” Joan said. She knew she was, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.

“Do you think I can’t tell when you’re pouting?” Chase asked.

“I am NOT pouting,” Joan said.

“You definitely are,” Chase said, his grin only growing wider.

Joan glared at him, her eyes narrowed. “Fine, I’m pouting just a little bit. But it’s your fault.”

“I thought you wanted to come with me?” Chase asked.

“I did, I do,” Joan said before giving another soft sigh. “I’m just…”

“Yes?” Chase asked.

“Who is Breeze?” Joan asked.

“What?” Chase asked.

“You’ve never really mentioned her,” Joan said. “In any of our lives. I don’t even know how you met her. Where you met her. For all I know she could be your daughter.”

“That’d be quite a trick,” Chase said. “Considering she’s older than me.”

“See? That right there? I didn’t know that,” Joan said. “Wait, older than you? She looks like she’s… right. Not human. Elf?”

“Nope,” Chase said.

“Demon?” Joan asked.

“Only ever called that by people she annoys,” Chase said.

“So no?”

“No,” Chase said. “If you really want to know, you should talk with her about it.”

“I don’t wanna know from her, I want to know from you,” Joan said. “I want to know more about you. Aside from Myrin, you’re the one I know the least about. And she was literally a whole other person.”

“Hell of a mask, that,” Chase said with a light chuckle. “Surely we talked.”

“A lot,” Joan said. “You told me plenty about what you did. All the time, in fact. We did a lot of things together, you taught me a ton of card tricks, how to spot cheaters, how to get away with cheating, how to mess with dice, how to get better at reading masks, how to pretend to be something you’re not. You know what I never realized?”

“What?” Chase asked.

“It was another mask,” Joan said. “I never knew about this Breeze girl. I never knew about ANYTHING that really mattered. We’ve been friends, allies, lovers--”

“Please don’t say that,” Chase said.

“I was a lot older then,” Joan said, rolling her eyes. “We’ve fought and killed each other. But I barely knew anything about you the person. I know your pranks, the people you’ve messed with, the games you’ve played. But your past? I don’t know you. You tried to kill me and then you just… joined me. Kind of like this time. If Breeze was waiting for you, then why didn’t you ever come back to her?”

“Perhaps I did,” Chase said.

“But you didn’t,” Joan said. “Even now, you didn’t come back to her until I brought you back. Where were you? You came with me on this adventure, but you never told me why. Why were you even there? Most of the Chosen are trying to help end this war. But not you, you’re not a part of those talks. So why were you even around for them to send?”

“Actually, that’s a funny story,” Chase said in an amused tone. “I was actually playing a little prank on lord--”

“And now you’re trying to distract me by telling me about another one of your pranks,” Joan said. “Can you just let me peek through the mask? Just a little?”

Chase looked towards her before, very softly, he gave a sigh. “Very well. You know, Joan. Not everyone could get away with what you do.”

“Oh? Why?” Joan asked.

“It’s the bond of the Chosen and the Hero, I suppose,” Chase said. “I… want to trust you. It feels unnatural at times. Like if there is anyone I could trust, it’s you. If there’s anyone I must protect.”

“Protecting me isn’t a punishment I’d wish on anybody,” Joan said.

“We met each other during a very difficult time in both our lives,” Chase said.

“You and Breeze?” Joan asked.

“Yes,” Chase said.

“Difficult as in ‘I just left a poor relationship’ or difficult as in ‘I was bleeding from a gaping wound and someone needed to keep me from blacking out’?” Joan asked.

“More the latter than the former,” Chase said. “Not for lack of trying, mind. We’ve both always been fairly independent, but we worked well together. There’s something to be said for having someone you can always call on and know they’ll have your back. But she doesn’t need me around and I don’t really need her around. It’s just something that the two of us do from time to time.”

“She likes having you around, though,” Joan said.

“I can’t say I blame her, I’m pretty amazing,” Chase said.

“Yeah, you are,” Joan said. “But that’s not what I meant. So you met when you were kids? Do you like having her around?”

“Something like that and sometimes,” Chase said. “You sure like to pry, don’t you?”

“So, who are we going to meet, anyway?” Joan asked before glancing down the road, not answering the question he already knew the answer to.

“We’re almost there,” Chase said. “An old friend of mine. A bit eccentric, but does amazing work. Makes some of the finest trapped tombs you’ve ever seen. We should be able to see his newest creation just after this ridge.”

“Wait, trapped tombs?” Joan asked, her eyes going wide. She felt a sudden swelling of excitement. “Are we going tomb diving?”

“No,” Chase said before they made it to the top of the hill.

Joan couldn’t help feeling a much larger rush of glee when she saw who the ‘contact’ was. Gozrug. The massive ogre made some of the greatest trapped tombs and obstacle courses she’d ever seen. Officially she’d never even entered any of them because they were, well, training. As the Hero it was her duty to always be at her peak. The reality was that they were also fun. If she failed, she got a little hurt. Nobody died. But they got the Hero’s blood pumping and were just so exciting! He looked as smug as ever, standing in front of a maze-like structure made of stone. “Eeeeee!”

“Just calm down and let me talk to him,” Chase said before lifting a hand to rub his forehead.

“I can’t believe you know Old-man Gozrug,” Joan almost yelled. “I can’t believe he actually has both legs this time.”

“What?” Chase asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Oh. Oh my gosh, yessss!” Joan said before running off ahead.

Gozrug glanced at Joan when she ran past him, but quickly looked back towards Chase. “Well well well, finally had a kid have you?”

“Please,” Chase said with a light chuckle. “I wouldn’t condemn anyone to a life with me. I’m trying to keep her out of trouble for the time being. I hear you have something for me?”

“Indeed I do,” Gozrug said before giving a light chuckle and then motioning behind himself towards the maze-like structure. “If you believe you can get ahold of it.”

“What did you do?” Chase asked.

Joan couldn’t contain herself anymore. She ran inside. A few lit torches lined the walls, shedding light across the maze. The ground was stone and, for all intents and purposes it looked like a normal hall.

She’d ran through halls like this a hundred times so she leaped over the trapped stone with ease, only reaching back with her sword a moment later to hit it, causing two spears to shoot out from the wall, slamming so hard into the other wall that they pierced through slightly. She couldn’t suppress a giddy squeal. He really needed to reduce the pressure on those. She then turned and started running down the hall.

Pit trap was simple to avoid.

The wall of spikes, however, was great. He had such a flare, with the way he setup little safe points so you had to time your jumps juuuuust right.

Joan couldn’t keep her gleeful shriek contained when she came to one of her favorites. The narrow path over a pool of acid or spikes or some special animal. With randomly rotating spears that jutted out of the wall. Walking the path was miserable and the Hero had failed at it soooo many times. But, eventually she’d found the trick and it went from miserable to one of the funnest parts.

Cackling with glee she leaped across, leaping from spear to spear before they could finish retracting. One cracked slightly under her weight and got locked in place, but that was fine. Gozrug would fix it, she was sure.

Ohhhhh. The fire erupting from the next room was a bit of a surprise, but her sword made bypassing that incredibly easy.

Then the thumping stone crushers. Jump jump dash roll and duck! “Eeeee!” Joan yelled with giddy glee before climbing back to her feet. There it was. The Silver Beetle. Resting easily on a platform that was going to collapse into a pit or something when she grabbed it. She looked around for the exit before running forward. Grabbing the beetle, she kicked off the platform moments before the ground opened underneath them, and landed on the exit platform a moment before the door opened. She raced out, the beetle held overhead.

“But, I am a man of my word,” Gozrug said, his voice filled with laughter. “If you get to the end, you’ll find the Silver Beetle waiting for you. Just like--” The words died in his throat when he looked back in time to see her. “That… that… how? That’s… impossible. How?”

“Ohhhh I haven’t done one of these in ages,” Joan said before stretching out. “I mean, sure, it’s wayyyyy easier than the later ones, but it’s nice to know I can still do them.”

“It may be Chosen-proof,” Chase said before giving a light chuckle. “But I don’t believe anything is quite Joan-proof.”

“That’s not… how did… she couldn’t… she’s a child… she… how?” Gozrug asked.

“Trust me,” Chase said before walking towards her and holding out his hand, which she dropped the beetle into. “All of us ask ourselves that almost daily.”

“This was a lot of fun, Old-man Gozrug!” Joan said giddily. “Can I come back and try again when you finish it?”

“Finish… it?” Gozrug asked.

“Yeah,” Joan said. “I mean, it doesn’t even have the pendulum blades yet or the spiked crushers. Those were my favorite!”

“Uhhhh… sure… kid,” Gozrug said before giving Chase a bewildered look that Joan was so used to seeing.

“So why didn’t you tell me you knew him?” Joan asked.

“What?” Gozrug asked. “Have… have we met?”

“Not this time,” Joan said. “Oh, I’m Joan by the way! I can’t wait to see your next one! Right, so we have the beetle, that was fun, now we just need to use it. We should head back to the city for that.”

“Of course,” Chase said before turning around. “It was great seeing you again, Gozrug. Until next time.”

“How…” Gozrug asked, still staring at the structure. “She was a… what?”

“Let’s go find us a temple filled with undead pirates,” Joan said happily.

“Wait, undead?” Chase asked. “Since when were they undead?”

“Didn’t I mention that?” Joan asked.

Chase just gave an exhausted sigh. “Maybe you need a few more masks...”

MelodyAvant

Please rate and review if you can to help the story get more attention. Also I'd love it if you left a comment with your thoughts on the chapter as it really helps me to identify what my readers enjoy reading.

If you'd like to help support me and my writing, please take a look at my Patreon which offers early access chapters as well as occasional voting to determine which of the series will be written next. Alternatively, full copies of my books can be purchased through amazon on my author page.

Finally, if you would like to talk more about the series or talk to me directly, please feel free to join my discord server. I also now have a bsky page where I announce news and releases.