Lukas and lody stared at the weapon in shock, neither of them unable to close their mouths for a full three seconds.
lody recovered first. "An Adept rank [Item]?!"
She looked at the sword, then at Akira. "You were walking around with that the whole ti?"
"Is that so surprising?" Even though her words were ant to be nonchalant, Akira looked pleased with their reactions. She was clearly proud to own the sword.
She sent the sword back into her spatial ring. "As a squad captain of the Sisters of Blood, having an Adept ranked weapon was standard. The work required it."
"The only Adept-level weapon I’ve ever seen belonged to my father," lody said, still processing what she’d seen. "I didn’t think I’d et soone our age carrying one."
She paused. "Can I try it?"
Akira waved a hand. "Why not."
Then she yawned, stretching as she did. It was clear she was very tired, and had been running on fus.
Lukas looked at her, then at lody. "Tomorrow," he said. "We’ll have ti."
Nobody argued.
They walked to the city gate and passed through without paying, the guards nodding them in with the indifference of n who had seen stranger things than three Awakeners returning from a late night excursion.
The streets were quiet but not empty, the late-night crowd of Awakeners moving between dungeons and pavilions giving them passing glances that lingered slightly longer than usual.
The three of them were used to being looked at. They kept walking.
Back at the hotel, Akira stepped into the room and turned in a slow circle, taking in the ceiling, the furniture, and the curtains.
"This," she said, "is significantly better than a bedroll in a cold camp."
She flopped onto the bed face-first without ceremony, sinking into the mattress. A long, contented sound escaped her. Within monts, her breathing had slowed and evened out.
Lukas and lody stood beside the bed and glanced at each other.
"She’s not what I expected," lody said quietly, careful not to wake the sleeping woman. There was a small smile on her face. "And that’s a good thing. I quite like her."
" too," Lukas said. "We’ll get more chances to know her tomorrow."
He turned to the bed. There was simply not enough space for three people to sleep on it, which ant one of them would have to find another room.
"Sleep here with her tonight," he said to lody. "I’ll take another room. We’ll sort out the arrangents tomorrow."
He was sure Akira would be more comfortable waking up with lody by her side than him. At least now that they were still effectively strangers.
lody looked at him. "Are you sure?"
"I’m sure." He leaned down and kissed her. "Goodnight."
She returned it, then sat down at the edge of the bed beside the already deeply asleep Akira.
Lukas headed downstairs.
At the lobby desk, he requested a second room, and when the attendant presented the options, he asked specifically for the largest available bed.
The attendant, professionally unbothered, processed the request and handed over the key.
The room was on the sa floor, just a short walk down the corridor. He pushed the door open and looked at the bed.
It was big. Significantly larger than the one lody and Akira were currently sharing. Large enough, by any reasonable estimate, for three people to sleep comfortably.
He looked at it for a mont longer than necessary, a salacious grin spreading across his face as he thought about the things the three of them could do on this bed.
Then he placed his sword and armor in his spatial ring, pulled off his boots, and got into bed.
He was asleep within minutes.
***
Morning, next day.
A quiet knock landed on the door.
lody straightened her shirt, ran a quick hand through her hair, and crossed the room to answer it.
Lukas stood in the doorway with his usual smile. "Good morning."
"Morning." She stepped aside to let him in.
He entered, his eyes moving imdiately to the bed.
Akira hadn’t shifted an inch from where she had landed the night before, still face-down in the center of the mattress, one arm hanging off the side. She’d slept through the night in her armor.
"She’s still out," he said.
"She hasn’t moved once." lody glanced at her. "She must have been exhausted. I didn’t bother trying to take off her armor. She seed comfortable sleeping in them."
"Yeah. Let her sleep." He kept his voice low. "Let’s go eat breakfast."
"Should we eat here or go down to the restaurant?"
He considered it briefly. "Let’s go to the restaurant. The sound of our cutlery could wake her up. And we’ll also be able to bring sothing back up for her in case she wakes while we’re down there."
lody nodded, already moving to the small writing desk in the corner. She found a scrap of paper and the pen beside it, and wrote quickly.
"Gone to the restaurant downstairs. Back soon."
— lody and Lukas.
She folded it once and set it on the bedside table, where Akira couldn’t miss it.
They slipped out of the room, pulling the door shut quietly behind them, and made their way down the stairs.
The restaurant was quiet at this hour, with most of the tables empty. The Awakeners with a full schedule were already on their way to whatever they had planned for the day, and the ones who’d worked at night were still sleeping.
They picked a spot near the window and ordered without thinking too much about it.
"So," lody said, once the waiter had gone, "what’s the plan for today?"
Lukas leaned back in his chair. "Given that Akira just arrived, I think we skip the dungeons and hunting. Give her a day to settle in."
"Agreed." lody paused. "Although, we could still go out in the evening. To test [Temptation]."
Lukas grinned at her words. "That’s fair. I’d like to see what an Adept rank weapon actually does."
"I’ve only held my father’s sword once," lody said. "He was very particular about who touched it. Took three years of asking before he finally let ."
She shook her head at the mory. "One second in my hands and he was already reaching for it back."
Lukas laughed. "We’ll see how it feels this evening then."
Their food arrived shortly after, and they ate without rushing. When they were done, they ordered a takeout box for Akira and carried it back upstairs.
Lukas opened the door.
Akira was still exactly where they had left her, sleeping deeply.
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