The walk back through the dungeon levels was quiet in a way that was different from the focused quiet of the entry. People moved and didn’t talk, and the absence of conversation had the specific texture of a group that had too many things competing for the space where words would normally go.
’These softies... why did they show that expression if she didn’t die...?’
’My fucking lust... I seem to not be able to let go of the failure, even though it’s not my fault.’
’Well... it’s just in my nature that I hate losing, especially if I already plan it that perfectly.’
’Those maid bitches are the ones to bla anyway...’
’I need to maintain my composure and concentration... I am confident that my plan, which I executed flawlessly, continues to yield positive results.’
Rex stayed near Aisella, who was maintaining a passive monitoring pass on Kaelira as Apollo carried her through the upper levels.
She was checking sothing every few minutes, a small pass of energy that she had apparently decided on as the minimum necessary to catch any deterioration before it beca a crisis, and the work kept her hands occupied and her attention focused in a way that was clearly serving both practical and coping purposes.
"Kaerila... she’s amazing to be able to held on for a long ti with that kind of injuries," Rex said quietly to her when the path was wide enough for two people to walk next to each other without it looking like they were having a conversation on purpose.
Aisella didn’t answer right away. She was watching Apollo’s back, how carefully he was carrying Kaelira and how carefully he was stepping on the uneven stone.
"Yes," she said. "She’s always like that... Kaelira is the type of girl who can’t be taken down that easily."
"Her will to be strong keeps on burning like she is right now."
"Well, it’s all thanks to you, too." Rex said, "You did a good job of healing her."
"I healed only what I could reach." Her voice was very clear, like a healer who had made her diagnosis and wasn’t going to round it up for comfort. "I’ve never seen cold damage like this before."
"What or whoever did it used a type of magic that I don’t know about." She stopped. "Maybe a shadow type... or sothing else that’s worse."
Rex asked, "Do you think she’ll be okay?" He put the right amount of weight behind the question to make it a real one instead of just acting.
Aisella looked at him sideways. "Physically, yes..."
"She’s strong, and her recovery baseline is good." Another pause. "The other kind of ’alright’ is harder to predict."
Rex nodded and didn’t say anything because that was what that answer needed.
’Oh great... thanks a lot, maid bitches.’
After being in the dark blue-green of the Thornmaze’s interior, the light outside felt intense. The group t up again in the clearing outside the entrance.
The three adventurers who had survived four days in the lower level by retreating to the far wall and rationing their supplies and energy blinked at the sky as if they weren’t sure they would see it again.
Apollo put Kaelira down on the grass at the edge of the clearing with the care of soone who had been carrying sothing that couldn’t be replaced and was now looking for a place to put it down without making a mistake.
He stayed kneeling next to her, and the rest of his group gathered around him in a loose group that didn’t have a specific shape, just many people standing close to each other. This is the way people stand when they need to be close to sothing but don’t know what to do with their hands.
Most of them were still crying. They were not crying dramatically like in stories, but rather quietly, as if they had been exposed to sothing difficult for a long ti, rather than due to any single mont of impact.
Rex stopped a few feet from the edge of the cluster, close enough that he could see that he was there and that he had stopped.
Apollo looked up.
Rex had thought about the expression before he got there, but it wasn’t fully ford or fully perford. In tis like this, he had the advantage of not really feeling what the people around him were feeling, which ant he could show it without the problems that real feeling caused.
He looked at Apollo and didn’t say anything for a mont. Soone who wasn’t grieving but was on the edge needed to be quiet, so this was the right thing to do.
"She... was a brave warrior," Rex said after a short pause. "She didn’t stop fighting, no matter what happened in there."
Before he spoke, Apollo’s jaw moved. "She never stopped fighting anything in her life."
His voice was steady but thin, like sothing that was being held at a certain level of tension. "That was just how she was as soone that I trusted and loved."
Rex nodded slowly and said, "I know," even though he had only known her for two days. This was because Apollo didn’t need to be right at that mont.
"I didn’t even know," Apollo said, and the way he said it made Rex understand right away what he ant.
"I didn’t know she—I thought I had more ti to—" He stopped.
"You answered her," Rex said.
He looked at Apollo.
"When she told you," Rex said, keeping his voice steady and direct. "You answered her. She knew that before any of this happened..."
"She always knew..."
Apollo’s face did sothing complicated, and Rex watched it happen with the full attention of soone who was keeping track of a change in the terrain they planned to cross later.
It wasn’t about fixing. It was too early for that.
It was more about how the person was feeling: the difference between soone in pain who is alone with it and soone in pain who knows soone is there. The specific change that presence made in acute grief, which wasn’t comfort but wasn’t nothing either.
Rex put his hand on Apollo’s shoulder for the right amount of ti.
"You got her out," Rex said. "And now... she’s saved."
"Don’t forget about Aisella... she did her very best to heal her, and that’s what you should be thinking about."
Apollo took a breath that was a little more controlled than the last one.
Elizabeth was watching the exchange from twenty feet away with an expression that told Rex she was paying close attention to it, judging it, and putting it away.
He didn’t look her in the eye.
He stood next to Apollo for another minute, then stepped back. He wasn’t leaving, but he was just giving them space, like you do when you need privacy and ti instead of presence.
He saw Aisella nearby, and she gave him a look that was not simple.
"That was... a kind thing to say, coming from you, Rex," she said softly and smiled. "Thank you..."
Rex looked her in the eye and let the silence that followed be what it needed to be.
[AISELLA MOONBLOOM: DESIRE LEVEL — 38/100 → 52/100]
[TALYRA SKYDANCER: DESIRE LEVEL — 35/100 → 44/100]
He read both notifications with the sa look on his face as soone who was getting information in a background channel.
’Should I just go for the easiest target first...?’
’That’s probably the best path, but still... I want to at least give a good fight for it.’
The afternoon light was flat and honest across the clearing, and the dungeon entrance behind them was a dark mouth in the hillside that no longer had anything left to give up today.
Apollo stayed by Kaelira’s side.
Rex stood nearby with his hands at his sides and a look on his face that said he had chosen to stay. He watched the main character pay for the ga Rex had started and thought about what would happen next.
A lot more happened after that.
But for now, he was here, and being here was doing exactly the work he needed it to do.
He stayed until the light began to change, and he did not smile.
Not where anyone could see him.
User Comments
0 comments from readers