Lillene

Enjoy!

Kaasi stared at the box that appeared in the place of the serpent. She couldn’t even call it a chest; it wasn’t. It was a cardboard box with a lid, like the ones she’d seen reams of paper come in. She supposed that meant it was probably something they could take with them, but it was essentially valueless except to get the reward out of the dungeon. What could the dungeon possibly have given them that needed a box to carry it out?

The answer, apparently, was one Etherium and a collection of thick leather covered in the scales of the snake they’d just killed. Kaasi knew that wasn’t literally true; not only was it just a dungeon construct, it was impossible to properly tan leather that quickly and this leather was properly and perfectly tanned. 

The leather explained the box, more or less; it would have been awkward to carry it out without a container and it was enough leather that it probably wouldn’t have easily fit in the bags most people would carry when they might fight at any time. At higher Tiers, that wasn’t as much of a problem; items that could hold more than they should and Skills that let you carry things more easily, one way or another, were so useful that they were common, if expensive. Tier Ones getting by on one Etherium and some leather for a run, however, wouldn’t be able to afford such a thing.

It might have been a decent, livable income on another planet or even in some of the poorer parts of this planet, but it wasn’t enough for New York City. Not when they’d spent more than two hours to get here. In fact, Kaasi was pretty certain that a minimum wage job paid more than a tenth of an Etherium. The snake leather would have to be pretty valuable to make this worthwhile, with the risk of injury on any delve.

Of course, they shouldn’t have taken anywhere near two hours. That they had made it more obvious that the three from Eternus didn’t belong in a dungeon. Yes, she’d held back to look like she was only Tier Two, but that still meant she’d killed more than two-thirds of the enemies they faced, even before the giant snake. They also shouldn’t have needed to stop and rest after every fight, even the small ones; one or two Skill uses shouldn’t be enough to require a rest, but they “wanted to be at top form for every fight.”

Kaasi wasn’t experienced, at least not in her own opinion, but she’d delved with people who were. You rested if a fight was difficult or used a lot of resources or you thought a big fight was coming up; otherwise, you kept moving and were careful with your Skill use.

Rolan picked the Etherium off the shake leather, then dropped it back on top. He started to reach for the box, then pulled his hands back. “How are we supposed to carry this?”

The box had handholds, but Kaasi didn’t think that was what he meant. “You mean, how are you supposed to fight while carrying it? You aren’t supposed to. If we were to continue forward, we’d have to decide between taking only the Etherium and taking the box but planning to drop it every time a fight begins. But we’re not going to do that.”

“What are you talking about?” Rolan bristled at the command in Kaasi’s voice. “You don’t get to tell me if we take the reward or not!”

That was what he was upset about? Kaasi almost sighed, but she knew that would just undercut her limited authority right now. “I don’t care if we take the reward or not, but we’re not heading down to the next level. At least, Amaia and I aren’t.”

Kaasi glanced over at Amaia nervously. She’d spoken without thinking; she should have just said she wasn’t going to continue. She didn’t really know Amaia well enough to speak for her, and she knew Amaia had worked to get onto a team with the three members of Eternus. 

Happily, Amaia didn’t seem upset; in fact, there was a soft smile on her face as if she was happy about Kaasi’s words. Kaasi was definitely going to ask about that later; did she always let other people make her decisions for her? That wasn’t a good thing.

Rolan’s mouth dropped open. “But - we’re doing this dungeon! You … she can’t just …”

“Stop.” Morgan’s voice was sharp and cut through Rolan’s shock enough to get him to turn to face her. “When the delve ends, I said. Before we leave the dungeon. I didn’t say we’d finish the dungeon. Here is … here is fine. I think.”

Amaia tilted her head and stared at Morgan, but didn’t say anything. That meant it was up to Kaasi.

Kaasi didn’t like the implications of Morgan’s words, so she moved between Amaia and Morgan. That left a clear path from Arthur to Amaia, but at least she could still keep an eye on all three of them. “You want something. You set this up. Why?”

“We didn’t set anything up,” Arthur objected. “We are …” He looked down and seemed to search for words for a moment before he continued. “We are really bad at this, I know, but we’re not trying to do anything bad. This was a lot harder than we thought it would be.”

“We set it up, yes,” Morgan agreed. “At least, we tried to. I don’t think it would have succeeded without some good luck, though. Good luck that I tried to arrange, but it doesn’t always work. Even when it does, I don’t always know why. I just knew that if we wanted to have the conversation we’re about to have, we had to request a tank then find Miss Black and figure out who she was. I don’t get to know why.”

Kaasi glared at Morgan. She was trying to admit error and get out of paying for it, both at the same time. “Let’s go, Amaia.” 

Kaasi would be looking into “Eternus.” There would be people at the Adventurers’ Guild who knew where they came from; there might even be someone who knew what their plan was if she approached it right. None of that meant she needed to stay in a place they’d clearly planned to get her (or more likely Amaia) in by manipulating her.

Amaia shook her head. “I want an explanation. You knew I’d go looking for you if you found me but you don’t know why? Why were you looking for me?”

Kaasi wasn’t sure if she should be worried about her friend’s lack of a self preservation instinct or if she should be glad Amaia would speak up when she wanted something. Did that mean that the reason she went along with things so often was because she didn’t care?

Wait, when had Kaasi started thinking of Amaia as a friend rather than a target? That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially not when she fully intended to limit the information she gave to Landon even before she met Amaia, but it was always something to be wary of. Now that she’d realized it, she could adjust her plans to take the friendship into account.

Kaasi never had enough friends. Her Path made friends difficult at best. It might have been different if she had another way to use her Skills, but that was an unrealistic dream. No one would trust a confirmed infiltrator, and that was her Path. It made her value the ones she had, even if she did end up disappointing far too many of them and had to leave the rest. There was no reason to believe Amaia would be different, but she could value the relationship while it existed.

“We-” Rolan started, then stopped when Morgan set a hand on his shoulder.

“I should explain. It’s my fault, after all.” Morgan let her hand fall to her side.

Arthur shook his head fiercely. “No, it isn’t. You didn’t have a choice any more than the rest of us did.”

“I did. I believed and -” Morgan shook her head sharply then turned to face Amaia. “I was, am, a Seer. A Vala. A few years ago, I was a Valkyrie in service to the Mimir, the Wise Ones.”

Amaia nodded. “Named after the dead god. There is no death about you, though the Mimir touch upon death occasionally and so do many of their Valkyries.”

Kaasi had never heard of the Mimir. They had to be a group local to Earth, though she wondered where Amaia had heard of them. Amaia usually seemed very sheltered.

Morgan looked shocked. “But .. they’re not …”

Amaia shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Please go on, tell me about the Mimir you know.”

“I, no.” Morgan still seemed shaken. “The Mimir are trying to reach the best future. I thought they meant for everyone, but after I failed it was clear that wasn’t true. They were angry that I did not fix the deviation and lost my sword. I was no longer a Valkyrie without the sword. I don’t know if that’s why they sent me through the portal they bought or not, but for the last four years I’ve been on my own, beholden only to those who came through the portal before me or with me. My jailors, though I didn’t know it.”

She sounded bitter. Kaasi was less and less happy the more she heard; this sounded like a large infiltration force sent to complete a task. They probably hadn’t been sent to conquer the planet, but that didn’t mean they would welcome a spy. Outside forces often had methods to find spies that were far more sophisticated than newly integrated worlds; more importantly, they watched for them. 

The fact that Amaia had heard of them made her doubt her knowledge of her friend. Was the entire thing an act? Had she been manipulated while she tried to learn about Amaia? Kaasi didn’t want to believe that, but she couldn’t entirely dismiss it.

“I had time and responsibility. I spent far more time and effort searching the future for options instead of looking for ways to complete tasks. I can’t believe …. No, I can believe it, I just don’t want to. It took me years to ask myself what would really happen if the deviation I failed to deal with were removed. That was the task we were given and I just believed everything would work out because the Wise Ones know best. I know how things change but it never occurred to me to check!” 

Morgan’s voice was tight; it almost sounded like she was shouting even though her volume was lower than her normal speaking voice. “When I did check, I found that everything was wrong with the idea. It would be a disaster. I spent weeks looking at different paths and what would happen, what could have happened. If I could have succeeded, if the man in white wasn’t there to stop me, we would all have been dead within twenty years. I do not know why they sent me to kill her once, much less twice.”

Amaia frowned and leaned forward, staring intently at Morgan. “Who did they send you to kill?”

“Clarissa Latimer,” Morgan answered without hesitation. “I didn’t know her name then, but it wasn’t hard to find once I arrived on Earth.”

Lillene

Personally, I think Kaasi shouldn’t worry about Death’s self-preservation instinct. Of course, there’s no way for Kaasi to know that …