The golden dawn light filtering through the crumbling chamber made Cel’s face look younger. Softer. Like the weight of being Seraphina Vance’s sister had lifted, even if just for a mont.
She touched my chest again, checking my ribs with the kind of clinical detachnt I’d expect from a healer, not a princess who’d just kissed like the world was ending. Which, technically, it had been. Her fingers pressed gently against the regenerator brace still wrapped around my torso.
"Can you walk?" she asked.
"Can I walk? Princess, I just killed a ten-thousand-year-old tree god with a baseball bat. Walking’s easy mode."
Her periwinkle eyes narrowed. "Stop calling that."
"Which part? Princess or easy mode?"
She punched my shoulder again, lighter this ti.
The chamber shook, interrupting our banter. Chunks of crystallized ceiling crashed down around us, exploding into glittering dust on impact. The massive tree at the chamber’s center continued shrinking, its branches withering and falling away like shed skin.
Right. Collapsing death dinsion. Probably should move.
I grabbed Cel’s hand and pulled her toward the tunnel we’d entered through. My burns scread in protest at the contact, but I ignored them. Pain was just another thing trying to slow down, and I had a personal policy about ignoring inconvenient obstacles.
The tunnel looked different now. The glass walls had transford into regular stone, the trapped faces gone. Small flowers grew from cracks in the rock, their petals unfurling toward the light filtering down from above.
"They’re free," Cel whispered, her fingers squeezing mine. "All of them."
The climb back up the stone stairs nearly killed . My legs felt like soone had replaced my muscles with wet noodles. My ribs sent out regular reminders that they’d been cracked by a dinsional horror approximately three days ago. The burns on my arms had gone past painful and straight into that weird numb territory where you know you’re completely screwed but your body’s too tired to care.
Cel wasn’t much better. She leaned heavily against the cliff wall, her breathing ragged and uneven. The white streaks in her hair pulsed with each labored step.
About halfway up, she stumbled.
I caught her before she went down, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Easy. One step at a ti."
"I don’t need your help."
"Sure. That’s why you’re currently using as a human crutch."
She tried to glare but ruined it by swaying dangerously. I tightened my grip.
"Just let help, Ice Princess. Your pride can murder later when we’re not about to fall to our deaths."
She sagged against my side. "I hate you."
"Yeah, I’m getting that a lot lately."
We climbed together, taking breaks every twenty steps because my cardiovascular system was currently filing complaints with upper managent. During one of these breaks, Cel looked at with an expression I couldn’t read.
"What you said down there. About reminding you of soone."
Oh good. The conversation I’d been hoping to avoid.
"Who?" she pressed.
I stared up at the distant light, considering my options. Lie. Deflect. Change the subject to sothing less emotionally compromising.
Instead, I told the truth. "Myself."
Her eyebrows rose.
"Before I got the System. Before I stopped being a complete disaster. Back when I was just so Zero everyone looked at like I was dog food on their shoe." I shrugged, imdiately regretting it when my ribs protested. "You were in a cage. Just a prettier one than mine."
"That’s why you wanted in Onyx? Because we’re the sa?"
"No. I wanted you in Onyx because your sister knows what happened to my dad and you’re my key to getting answers." I t her eyes. "But yeah. You being trapped in soone else’s plan for your life? That part I understood way too well."
Silence stretched between us.
Then Cel smiled. Not the polite, political smile I’d seen her use at the gala. A real one.
"You’re terrible at this."
"At what?"
"Emotional honesty. You keep telling you’re using , like you think brutal honesty makes manipulation noble."
I opened my mouth to argue.
"But," she continued, cutting off. "I appreciate it anyway. At least you’re a terrible person who tells the truth about being terrible."
Fair point.
We reached the top of the stairs as the river chamber collapsed behind us. The black water drained away, revealing smooth stone underneath. The faces in the glass were gone completely.
The tunnel leading back to the surface stretched ahead of us, but it looked shorter now. Less oppressive. The fungus on the walls had transford into regular moss that gave off a soft, pleasant glow.
My vision flickered.
Blue light exploded across my peripheral vision like soone had just turned on a flashlight directly behind my eyes.
[SYSTEM CONNECTION RESTORED]
Nel’s voice crashed through my consciousness with all the subtlety of a freight train.
Oh thank the Fates, you’re alive! Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to be cut off from your only human anchor? I’ve been screaming into the void for hours and the Audience has been absolutely insufferable with their speculation about whether you’d died and if Apollo would need to find a replacent protagonist and—
"Not now," I muttered under my breath.
Cel glanced at . "What?"
"Nothing. System stuff. Just ignore ."
She gave a look that suggested she had several follow-up questions about what ’System stuff’ ant, but graciously decided not to ask.
System stuff? Nel’s voice dripped with offense. I’ll have you know that I am a sophisticated taphysical interface representing the culmination of divine programming across multiple—
I ntally slamd the door on her comntary.
The notifications started flooding in.
[QUEST COMPLETE: THE GARDENER’S END]
[TRIAL BY BLACK GATE: SURVIVED]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED: FREED THE FIRST TREE]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED: PRESERVED THE COMPANION]
[CALCULATING REWARDS...]
The golden counter spun up like a slot machine having a seizure.
800 SP for killing the Arborist.
500 SP for surviving a Black Gate.
300 SP for freeing the imprisoned specins.
200 SP for protecting Celeste without using her as bait.
1,800 Schema Points total.
My brain stuttered trying to process that number. That was more than I’d earned from the entire Necropolis disaster. Add it to my current balance of 215, and I was sitting on 2,015 SP.
Two thousand points.
I could buy abilities that would make untouchable. Could upgrade my existing skills to Legendary tier. Could pull enough gacha to make Apollo weep with joy.
The Audience is losing their collective minds, Nel chid in, her voice giddy with excitent. The ratings spiked so hard during the Arborist fight that Apollo actually spit out his ambrosia. And the kiss? Satori, you magnificent disaster, you kissed the President’s sister while covered in blood and third-degree burns. The romance forums are on fire.
Great. My near-death experience was trending.
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