Adrian found him on the transition platform between floors, waiting for the gate to stabilize.
"A mont of your ti?" His voice carried that pleasant warmth that made everyone trust him, and Dante had to consciously stop his hand from moving toward his sword.
"What do you want?"
"Just to talk." Adrian settled beside him while maintaining a respectful distance, his body language open and unthreatening. "We fought well together against the serpent, and I’d like to understand you better."
"There’s nothing to understand."
"I disagree." The smile never wavered, but sothing sharpened behind those hazel eyes. "You move like you’ve done this before, Dante. Not just fought, but climbed. Every floor, every challenge, you react before the danger appears, and that level of anticipation suggests either precognition or experience you shouldn’t have."
’He’s smart, always was, the traitor act doesn’t require stupidity just emptiness.’
"I’m observant."
"You’re more than that." Adrian glanced toward where Ravenna and Astrid waited by the gate, their postures tense with protective hostility. "Your companions watch like I’m a threat, but I haven’t given them any reason by my actions here, which ans you’ve told them sothing."
"We’re cautious people."
"You’re cautious about specifically." He turned to face him fully, the mask slipping just enough to reveal the calculating machine underneath. "I want to know why, what have I done to earn your suspicion?"
The honest answer would be: you murdered twelve of my friends in a tiline that hasn’t happened yet. But honesty wasn’t an option, not when it would sound insane and accomplish nothing.
"I don’t trust easily," he said instead. "Anyone who seems too helpful, too charming, too eager to make friends sets off warning bells. Nothing personal."
"And if I prove myself trustworthy over ti?"
"Then maybe my opinion will change."
Adrian studied him for a long mont with those empty eyes searching for sothing they couldn’t quite find. Then the pleasant mask slid back into place and he stepped away with a small nod.
"Fair enough, I look forward to proving myself then." He paused at the edge of the platform. "Floor 8 has its own challenges, perhaps we’ll have another opportunity to fight together."
"Perhaps."
He walked away, and the tension in Dante’s shoulders eased slightly.
Ravenna appeared at his side almost imdiately, her hand finding his with the ease of established practice. "What did he want?"
"To probe, to understand why I don’t like him." He watched Adrian rejoin his group, watched them laugh at sothing he said. "He’s starting to realize I’m a problem for whatever he’s planning."
"Is that dangerous?"
"Everything about him is dangerous." He squeezed her hand once and released it. "But not today, today we have a different problem to deal with."
"Your ex."
"Yeah." The word ca out heavier than he intended. "Her."
---
The gate to Floor 8 opened with the usual disorientation of dinsional transit, and they erged into a world of endless blue.
Water surrounded them on all sides, but they weren’t subrged. Instead they stood on a walkway of ancient stone that cut through the ocean, leaving maybe a ter of air between the surface and their heads. Through gaps in the architecture he could see the ruins of a massive city stretching in every direction, its towers and dos filling the depths below.
[Floor 8: The Sunken City]
[Format: Exploration and combat]
[Objective: Reach the city center]
[Hazards: Aquatic predators, unstable structures, limited air zones]
[Ti limit: None]
"It’s beautiful," Ravenna breathed while looking around at the scale of the drowned tropolis. "What happened here?"
"Nobody knows, the city was already flooded when humans first reached this floor." He started walking with his boots echoing on stone that had been underwater for millennia. "The Tower provides air pockets and breathing enhancents, but certain areas are completely subrged. Stick close and don’t wander into deep water without warning first."
Astrid was less enchanted by the scenery, her attention focused on the shadows moving in the depths below. "What kind of predators?"
"Sharks with legs, eels that can phase through solid matter, and sothing bigger that lives at the city center that we’ll have to deal with eventually." He paused at an intersection while consulting mories eight years old. "This way leads to the main climber camp, we can resupply and gather information before pushing deeper."
They moved through the sunken streets in careful formation with him leading, Ravenna in the middle, and Astrid covering the rear. The architecture around them spoke of a civilization that had been advanced and alien, its aesthetic nothing like anything Earth had ever produced. Spiraling towers rose from waters too deep to see their foundations while bridges connected buildings at heights that suggested the original inhabitants could fly. And everywhere, carved into stone and tal alike, were symbols that might have been writing or might have been art.
The camp appeared after maybe an hour of walking, a collection of temporary structures built on one of the city’s larger platforms. rchants had set up stalls while healers offered their services for system points, and dozens of climbers milled about resting and organizing for their own pushes toward the center.
He scanned the crowd automatically, looking for threats, looking for opportunities.
And there she was.
Dark hair perfectly styled despite the humidity. Warm brown eyes that crinkled when she smiled. Delicate features arranged in an expression of friendly curiosity as she examined sothing a rchant was selling.
Seira Valen, the woman who had broken him, the woman who had said he wasn’t enough and would never be enough before leaving him for soone she thought was stronger.
She didn’t recognize him because in this tiline they had never t. She was just another climber making her way through Floor 8, beautiful and apparently kind and completely unaware of the devastation she had caused in a future that no longer existed.
"Dante?" Ravenna’s voice was soft and concerned. "Your emotions just went very dark."
"I’m fine."
"You’re not fine, I can feel it." She followed his gaze to Seira with understanding dawning in her expression. "That’s her, is that her?"
He didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
Astrid had noticed too, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the woman who had hurt him in a tiline she would never see. "She’s pretty, in a soft useless kind of way."
"She’s not useless, she’s a seer with genuine predictive abilities." He forced himself to look away, to focus on the task at hand. "And she’s not our problem. We get supplies, we rest, we move on, that’s the plan."
"And if she approaches you?"
"Then I’ll be polite and distant and give her no reason to rember ."
Even as he said it, he knew it wasn’t going to be that simple because nothing about Seira had ever been simple, and the weight of mory was already making it hard to think clearly.
But he had Ravenna’s hand in his again, warm and steady. He had Astrid at his back, fierce and loyal. He wasn’t the sa broken man who had fallen apart when Seira left him the first ti, and this ti he had people who actually cared about him, which ant this ti he was ready.
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