Micah missed the step to Lisa's door and Ryan caught him by his arm. "'You alright?"
"Yeah, thanks." He smiled up at him. "The step just wasn't where I thought it would be." A gold chain necklace with a red ring dangled out from under his shirt.
It was either this one or the other, Micah had said. He'd just shown up in his room yesterday, hopped onto his bed, and held it out to him.
And I think I liked the other one better. It was this dark iron one. But the clerk said this looked better on . Because of … sothing about matching my skin tone? And, what do you think?
On anyone else, the necklace would have looked shady, Ryan thought. It was the type of necklace a crook in a bad play would wear, asking for money. He sohow made it look charming. Or maybe not. Maybe he was biased. He'd told him whatever to get him to shut up.
Ryan jerked the guy upright, let go, and knocked.
"You don't have to slam the door down," Micah complained.
He frowned. "I didn't."
But he only got him a look that said, Sure, in return and before Ryan could respond, the door opened and Lisa stood there with a smile for them. His response lted away into one of his own.
"You're here," she said, in a tone like there was a 'finally' hiding in there sowhere. Were they late? He didn't think so. Weren't you supposed to show up fashionably late to parties?
"Happy birthday!" Micah called out and imdiately went for the hug.
She chuckled and wrapped her arms down around him, at least a head taller than the guy. "Thank you."
"And, I got sothing for you." He leaned back to hold out a gift bag full of clinking bottles. Just the six of them, red to purple. The base colors for finger painting.
She peeked inside and seed to need a mont to catch on, but then her eyes went wide. "Micah—"
"So how old are you— Oh, sorry. 'Didn't want to interrupt." He took another step back.
"Seventeen," Ryan supplied, "so you're eight and a half months older than and so much older than him." He jerked a thumb at Micah. "You're, like, old. A grandma."
She glanced at Micah once more but tilted her head. "You make that sound like a bad thing."
"Isn't it?"
"Age is wisdom, and size, and strength, and all that," she waved him off. "Yadda, yadda, yadda."
"Ah?" He held his arms out and stepped forward for his own hug. "Happy birthday, Lisa," he said into her hair.
"Thank you, Ryan."
She was warm and more relaxed than when he'd first t her. Ryan wished he could have squeezed tight and held on forever. But after a second or two, he backed off and handed her his present.
It was food, mostly. An assortnt of snacks and trail foods, because she seed to prefer small and frequent als over large ones … and he hadn't really known what else to get.
She smiled, thanked him, and waved them inside, where the sounds of the conversation he'd heard from the distance ca clearly from the living room. So voices were familiar, others not. Their shoes joined the pile and he walked past the kitchen to step around the corner.
"Ryan!" Anne called.
He suppressed a scowl. Why the fuck was she so friendly lately?
Her eyes moved to the side and she called out, "Micah!"
"Anne!"
He sighed and stepped aside to let Micah rush past. Myra, Thea, a girl he didn't know, Sion, and Anne had squeezed themselves onto one couch.
Navid, another girl he didn't know, and Thomas stood at the window a few steps behind them. She looked like she was about Lisa's age and had darker skin, like Navid. They seed as if they had been looking out at the yard, but had turned around to see the commotion.
Ryan gave them a nod, wondering if he should rib them about their clothes. They were old and formal—not the type of clothes they could do stuff in. Though, maybe they could afford to.
Finally, a girl who looked a lot like Anne but older—her sister? cousin?—inspected the trophy wall above the fireplace. She seed to be the eldest here by a few years.
Chaperone?
Ryan frowned and looked around for the man in the too-tight shirt. "Where's Mave?" he asked. "Or Garen, anyway, or the uh— Ms. Reed?"
"Mave has the day off," Lisa said, throwing herself into the armchair next to him. She imdiately began to dig through his gift bag and brought out the tin of cookies. "Garen and his teammates aren't back yet."
She tried to claw it open, made a face, and pressed her hand flat against the lid to twist.
Ryan held a hand out, still stumbling over words in his head. "Sorry," he said. "That they aren't here." Briefly, he imagined what it might be like to spend a birthday without his parents. It seed likely, soday soon, and he didn't like it. "I'm sure they would have wanted to—"
"Ryan," she interrupted. "It's fine. Really. They might still show up, or I'll see them tomorrow, or in a week, or who knows? The important thing is that you're here and they'll get back eventually."
She handed him the tin.
"Oh." He smiled again, for her, and took it. "Right." He got the lid open and handed it back.
"That better have been a collective 'you'," Myra said where she sat squeezed halfway off of the couch.
Lisa thrust the tin up triumphantly. "Cookies! Ryan brought. And so other snacks." She took one out, bit down on it, and passed the tin along before digging through the rest of the bag.
The others cheered, making him look around. "Don't you have … any food or snacks out?"
Lisa shook her head. "I had so, but Anne made put most of them away and we've eaten so of the others. I mistakenly assud Maverick would help cook. He declined the invitation."
She enunciated the words with fake care.
He spotted rather than slled a plate with so leftover juice patches on it. From fruit or vegetable slices? It was hard to find anything with the copious amount of colognes going on. Especially Micah's. He was doing sothing with this spring batch that made it sll more 'real'.
Ryan shoved the thought aside, gave her response a mont's thought, and doubled down on his frown. "Monster food?"
"Monster snacks."
"The others don't eat?"
There was a bag of jerky in there he'd bought with her in mind. Lisa didn't have the ti or space to make her own anymore, he suspected, and it was nearly indistinguishable from normal jerky.
She found the bag, took a sniff, and gave him a thumbs-up. "So definitely do. But Anne and the others have dietitians in charge of what they eat in that regard."
Ryan snorted. Of course, they do.
"And, uhm," she lowered her voice, "Thea's friend is a vegetarian."
Ryan hesitated, then leaned close to whisper, "You don't know her na?"
She shook her head in a fierce but subtle tremble. "She just brought her along as a surprise and mumbled her introduction."
He sighed in relief.
"It's not because we're aiming for specific Stats," Anne said. And by the tone of her voice and Lisa looking over, he knew she was talking to them. Apparently, she'd been eavesdropping.
Figures.
"At least, not right now. In case you were thinking—"
"I wasn't."
She nodded and seed to take what he'd said at face value for once, but went on anyway, "It's the opposite. We don't want to eat anything without checking first in case of influences."
What proper students they were.
"And what about the exam, then?" Micah rcifully asked, getting her attention from the other armchair.
She really was friendly lately, as if she'd just flipped a sign one day. Did she expect him to do that as well?
"Or later on, during expeditions. Lots of climbers resort to eating monsters inside the Tower."
She shrugged and smiled. "A few days won't hurt. We can still plan out where we'll go and pack provisions. Otherwise, we can note things down for reference. By the ti we can go on true expeditions, we'll probably be too high level for it to matter, except in special circumstances."
"Ooh, like with Giant Honey Ant Queens?"
"Yeah!"
"If they even still exist," Navid said, joining the conversation. "But yeah, I heard of a guy once, this [Cook], who ate that and nothing else for a week and his next level gave him [Lesser Regeneration]. A [Cook]."
"You 'heard'," the chaperone said over her shoulder.
Navid looked genuinely surprised. "Am I wrong?"
"It sounds just off-base enough to ring false to ," she told the wall. "I have no idea what really happened, though."
So she was related to Anne, then. Was the other girl a relative of Navid or Sion's, then?
"Huh. Well." He shrugged. "Close enough."
"My sister fought a Giant Honey Ant Queen once," Micah said.
Myra leaned forward to give him a funny look, glanced at the chaperone and Anne, and looked back at him. "Are you serious?"
"Yep."
Nobody else seed surprised. Or like they cared.
"Maya Stranya," Anne supplied.
Ryan already knew that—he'd been the one to tell Micah—so he tuned the conversation out and leaned against the armchair to tap Lisa instead. "So what's for lunch, then? Or dinner? Are we going to cook together?"
That could be fun.
"I wanted to," she said, "but the others asked what we were doing then and I didn't really have an answer, so …"
He couldn't help but chuckle. "You didn't make any plans?"
"Not really, no. They brought gas, we have so of our own, and they want to 'hit the city', walk around, and do stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"No idea."
"Mm …"
So just wandering around, then? He wondered if that would be fun. Micah seed to be enjoying himself, though, as he shared stories.
"Who's the babysitter?" he asked, nudging his chin at Anne's … whatever.
"Diane," Anne cut in again, despite the distance. The two guys on either side of her were talking across. "But I call her De. Or Dede. She's my cousin. She ca to invite Lisa to dinner, but I convinced her to tag along. Because she had nothing better to do on a Sunday, didn't you?"
She turned on her, 'Diane' noticed, and looked away.
"Dinner?" Ryan asked.
"Our family," the chaperone answered, pointedly ignoring her cousins' grin. "They realize Lisa would rather spend her actual birthday with her friends, but they still want to celebrate with her in person. It was only fitting that we invite her in person as well."
And Anne couldn't have done that?
Of course, it was possible she and Lisa were friends … just as it was possible a stray cat lived in the house across the road, or the one down the street, or the next one over. She seed stiff and distant as she inspected the trophies on her own, he ant.
"Your family really likes Lisa, then?" Micah asked, smiling almost as if he were proud of her.
"You say that like it's a surprise," Navid said and braced against the couch back. He nodded wisely. "I get it."
"Hey, screw you," Lisa said.
"Yeah, no insulting the birthday girl on her birthday," Thea added. "That's just poor manners."
"Hear her?"
"Well, she is family," Diane told him across their bickering. "We're distant cousins, you could say."
Ryan frowned. "That's the first I'm hearing of this."
She looked up and admitted, "If you go far enough back. Extrely distant cousins. Her parents aren't exactly the type of people you would want to insult by being uncourteous to their daughter, anyway."
That ca as more of a surprise than the kinship claim. Ryan glanced a foot to the side where Lisa was still bickering, looked back, and asked with a smile, "Her parents? What are they like?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"Uh—"
"Lisa," she said before he could stop her, "Ryan would like to know what your parents are like."
She'd just stuffed another cookie in her mouth, choked, and coughed the crumbs out. "What?"
"De!" Anne cried and half-rose to kick at her chin. She didn't reach and Sion had to steady her before she fell off the couch. "You're only supposed to be a tag-along; don't ask questions."
Rather than answer, Lisa frowned and suddenly turned on Micah instead. "Oh, and that reminds —"
Ryan elbowed her in the shoulder. "No switching topics. Share sothing." He really wanted to know.
"La!" Thea called. "There are no parents here, so there will be no talking about them, either."
Myra nodded once, almost to herself.
Lisa hesitated and turned right back on Micah. "Right. On the topic of annoying tag-alongs—"
"Excuse ?"
"—what's this about Kyle tagging along with our team during the exam?"
Thea pushed back into the couch with a cookie and whispered, "Ooh. This is more like it."
She said it like so sort of drama was about to unfold, but Lisa was smiling like it was a joke instead, and she could shut him down with a simple 'no'. Well, either that or she was actually giving him a chance.
Ryan wasn't sure he liked either option, because he sure as hell hadn't known about this.
"Uh, what?" Micah said. He hesitated, smiled, and sat against the armchair opposite them. "I an, that was just in case nothing changes before the exams but, uh— How did you know about that anyway?" He glanced at Anne, who shook her head.
"I t him yesterday," Lisa waved him off, "in the city. He'd bought a shirt. Now go on."
Ryan kept his eyes on Anne, too. Because unlike the rumors of other Heswaren he'd heard about, her face was an open book. And by the funny look she gave him, sothing was off. But then she turned a page onto Micah, instead.
Not quite true? But true enough that she wouldn't speak out about it. That was all that mattered.
Ryan joined the two with a scowl. What the hell? He'd invited Kyle in again, and this ti without consulting them first?
"They didn't know?" Anne asked.
"You did?" Ryan blurted out.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. He told ." She pointed. "During lunch once. I wanted to know why he had run off all the sudden?"
And Ryan hadn't. Great. He'd just assud it was one of those things Micah did. Now, he couldn't say anything and the silence was damning. He was beginning to see why people might not like Heswarens. Maybe he should just lie to her face anyway.
"It was just that—" Micah said. "It wasn't anything official. It was in case nothing changed before the exam. I would like to work with him because we want similar things, you know?"
"Like what?" Lisa asked, bemused.
"To contribute. It sucks that our 'Guest' discovered sothing as big as the Gardens and not sobody who actually deserved it—"
"Wait, what?" Thea chuckled.
He ignored her and asked them, "Don't you think so, too?"
Well, Ryan did but … that didn't necessarily an he thought Kyle should be one of those people. Or he himself.
"You actually think you deserve to make so grand discovery more than a Guest of the City?" Thea asked. "Or is this so kind of 'the young deserve it more' type of deal?"
Although, maybe if he did make so grand discovery or beca an accomplished climber, it might make his parents proud of him?
"No, I just really fucking hate the guy who attacked us when we were trapped inside the Tower," Micah grumbled.
A spear to a throat. A hair's breadth away from becoming a murderer. Of course, there was no way his parents would be proud of him forever. So things, when you screwed them up, there was no 'next ti' for.
"Wait—"
"It's true," Anne interrupted her, "but can we move on?" She nudged Micah. "Why didn't you tell them right away?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. You said the exam is still months away and there was other stuff to focus on, like the written exams coming up or Sports Day. And it really wasn't a sure thing. I an, I still wanted to work on a way to convince you, but it wasn't sothing intentional."
"Mm," Lisa humd and looked to Ryan as if for input.
He blinked, needed to backtrack to know where they were, and pinched his nose in frustration. He couldn't do this. Suddenly, he wanted to go back to his room.
"Where were we?"
"I was just ant … it wasn't intentional?" he said sheepishly.
"Oh."
But that was just it, it was fucking hard to be mad at Micah. When he did screw up, it almost never was intentional. But he did stuff like that over and over again, and it was almost bad enough on its own.
Lisa didn't seem to have the sa problem. She seed amused and leaned back in her armchair. "So convince us now?"
"Huh?"
"On Kyle joining our team."
"Ooh, we can be like your judges," Thea's friend said, though Ryan was pretty sure she didn't go to their school.
He glanced from side to side. "Uhh … do I have to?"
"Yep. Try it."
"Kyle's the weird one, right?" Thea asked. "With the hair, and the face, and the glove, and the—"
"Everything," Ryan finished for her. "He's the one with the everything."
"Right."
"He's not that bad," Micah said. "He's actually pretty cool, I think. He has that rebel, 'I don't give a fuh— udge' aesthetic going on."
"He does not," Thea said and nudged her chin ahead, "Ryan over there's an example of 'cool'. You hang around him all the ti; you should be able to make the comparison." She smiled at him.
Ryan hesitated, then smiled back. His legs were beginning to feel awkward leaning against the armchair, so he pushed up to move them a little.
"Ryan's a show-off," Navid said, with a tone too jealous to be serious. "What he lacks is class."
A few chuckled, a few seed discomforted by the comnt, but the people who mattered didn't seem to care or looked at him as if awaiting a response. Micah was both and the latter, Lisa both and the forr.
Ryan hesitated, then forced himself to shrug as usual do. Just get it over with. "What? All I heard is that he looks worse than when he takes his clothes off."
Micah oohed, but it didn't quite work when it ca from him. Thankfully, a few others joined in and Thomas shoved his friend. Better.
Navid actually seed happy that Ryan had said sothing, because he smiled as he stumbled away, much like Lang or Finn might. And he still did when he said, "Okay, okay," and turned back on Micah. It was actually kind of comforting.
The others joined in, and Micah seed to realize he couldn't dodge the topic. His expression fell. "Uhm, he did better than on the exam?"
"He did?" Myra asked.
"He was a stickler for the rules," Ryan threw in. "So he didn't get any points deducted, unlike us."
"Ah."
"He was good!" Micah insisted. "He was. He didn't get hurt, either, even without using a shield. So there's that. And he wants to find sothing, too, so I thought of him when I had the idea."
"Discovering stuff isn't exactly an 'idea'," Anne said, putting the word in air-quotes. "Everyone wants to explore the Tower, nowadays."
"Well, no. But it's not because I would feel like I'm stealing, it's just that I want to work with him."
"And what about us?" Lisa asked.
"Well, I thought you would like him," Micah said, "since you hadn't really interacted with him before. And I kind of feel like Ryan and he got off on the wrong foot, sort of like— Uh, nevermind."
"He's my roommate and he's annoying," Ryan said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"How so?" 'Thea's Friend' asked.
"He's uncooperative, unfriendly, uncaring, and uh … I've run out of 'un-' words to use."
"Examples, examples," she said because she apparently really didn't know him. "I need an image."
"Honestly, I could give you a list," Ryan said, "but I'm not about to gossip about Glove Guy of all people."
"Eh, everyone has a bad roommate or two," Thomas said. "It's part of what school is all about. Micah here is one, I've heard."
"What?" he asked, and Ryan echoed him a half-second later before he could stop himself. Old habit.
He managed to tack on a disarming smile before they looked at him. Micah could take care of himself and banter was good.
"Yeah. I an, aren't you?" the guy asked with a teasing smile.
Micah hesitated and grumbled, "Maybe. At least, I know Vladi's a gossip now."
"Hey, no. I didn't an it like that."
He imdiately switched to a smile. "I know."
Ryan didn't get why they would think Micah's a bad roommate at all. What, did he annoy them with rambled conversations about alchemy, was he a neat freak or sothing? Or was it because he so rarely hung out with them?
"Yeah, see, you're not really convincing ," Lisa said. "Wasn't Kyle the one who does not even share his papers with other people?"
"Well, yes," he admitted, "but we know he's high level."
"Do we?"
"He's high enough level that he thought he'd be a higher level than most people his age."
"Wow, so he has a big ego," Thea said.
"We know that he has [Lesser Weather Resistance], [Basic Dendrology], and [Power Strike]? And so kind of axe proficiency."
"That could be level five for all we know. Do you even know anything about his Path?"
Micah didn't answer and he seed down as he tried to think of an answer instead. Maybe Ryan should try to move the topic along … or maybe he could wait to see if this would get rid fo Kyle for him.
"You're not going to convince them this way," Diane said and they all turned to her. "Or at least, not today. Say what you see. Tap into your Skill if you must."
"Skill?" the girl at the window asked.
Micah sighed. "Fine. He was scouted for our school, you know that, right? He didn't have to pass any of the exams, but sohow still managed to get a full scholarship. I doubt slightly above average cut it. He faced all the sa dangers we did during the exam without a shield, spells, or enchanted gear—his equipnt was actually pretty shit, if you think about it—yet he walked away without a scratch. If anything, that's why he got a better score than us.
He's good. He's just a little weird and unfriendly. And I really think you got off on the wrong foot."
"Yep, that settles it for ," Lisa said.
He lit up. "It does?"
Ryan looked at her. It did?
"I'll give him a chance."
"Oh."
He sat back down and Ryan relaxed.
"Maybe if he can convince , he can convince Ryan, too. But you were right, it will be a while until the exam."
"We do have to find teammates," Myra said. "The earlier, the better."
"Oh, do you already have soone in mind?"
The conversation shifted to who they might want on their teams, asking if it was because they had a crush on those people, and a little bit more gossiping on potential teammates.
Ryan sat down on the other couch closest to Lisa, and the window trio soon joined him. Apparently, the other girl was an older cousin Navid had brought along, Sara. Lisa didn't know her.
"I just told them who was coming and Myra asked, 'That's all?' So I said they could bring more, but not too many. One each."
Huh. If he had known that, he might have brought soone else along, like Finn or … maybe not Lang. But Finn would have loved it, here. Probably. Not if he tried to pick a fight with the rich kids.
"Hey, on the topic of teammates," Navid said, "there's that big opportunity for scouting coming up, isn't it? Are you excited?"
"Sports Festival," Micah said in an awed whisper, then louder, "And yes!"
The others looked like they wanted to but in with their own thoughts and comnts, but Ryan spoke before them, "Written exams first."
They all paused in their smiles and turned to look at him. So groaned while others complained.
He shrugged. "What? I'm just saying."
Navid jumped up to slap a sign and made it sway on its hinges. "I bet you can't do that," he said.
Thomas made a face, handed Sion his beer, and jumped himself. He slapped the sign and walked on without a hitch. "Easy."
"Ooh, I want to try," Micah said and ran to do the sa. He grazed the rim, landed, and his right leg gave way. He stumbled for a few steps before he had to push himself back up against the ground.
A few chuckled, others tried and made the jump with ease, but the sign flapped wildly after Lisa slapped it, her own beer miraculously still in her other hand.
"Don't break it," Anne warned her.
"Sorry, sorry."
The two older girls, Diane and Sara, had left already after the Bazaar—not that they had talked much with each other. They lived in a similar direction, apparently.
Ryan didn't get why they had co in the first place when they'd barely even said a word to them and weren't here to walk their younger relatives ho. He'd briefly humored the idea that they might be bodyguards. Either way, he wasn't about to complain. As soon as they had left, the rest of them who were old enough had bought beers at the nearest tavern to toast.
"Dammit," Micah said as he looked back at the sign. "Almost." He shook his hand and grimaced.
"You alright?" Ryan asked, his other hand in his pocket. He took a few steps in his direction.
"Just a scuff and so dirt." He waved his other hand and water began to pour onto it from thin air. It splashed on the stones, and Lisa complained when so got on the hem of her pants.
"Whoops. Sorry!"
She glared at him and raised her leg to brush the water away easily as one might dirt, just as she had done with her wet hair.
Micah saw and rushed to say, "Oh, let try!"
Lisa looked at him. "Uhm ..." But then he was already crouched in front of her and using one hand and so mana to try and weave the water out of her pants. It didn't seem to work.
"Mages," Sion scoffed.
"Alchemists," he rebutted. His other hand, he held delicately.
Thomas must have noticed, because he asked with a grin, "Want to put so ice on it?"
"Uhm, no thanks."
They were walking down a street in a loose hobound way, keeping an eye out for restaurants, maybe, while the afternoon grew darker. After so gas, the park, lunch, and a day in the Bazaar, they didn't have much else planned. Maybe they would cook after all.
Lisa suddenly looked up and headed down a side-street. One by one, the rest of them followed at a leisurely pace.
Micah chuckled out of nowhere.
"What?" Ryan asked and took another sip. The tingly, frothy, bitter liquid still make him grimace ever so slightly, but he liked it.
"So Tower essence just tried to drink my water by going right under it. It ended up choking and shook itself like a wet dog."
Anne paused and turned around to look at him. "Tower essence?"
"Yeah."
Ryan shook his head. He was a little envious that he couldn't see like them, because it seed like the type of fantastical thing he might be interested in, but when he glanced around and imagined those organs watching him as soon as it got dark … Well, it helped.
"You know, the silver shine that cos from the Tower?" Micah asked as he stepped out of the alley.
Lisa had led them onto one of the main thorough streets and stood still at the side, looking at sothing in the distance. It took Ryan and mont to find what it was. Or rather, who.
Through the crowd, Garen, Allison, and two others made their way down the street, laden to the brim with luggage in the form of sacks, duffels, backpacks, and more. They were caked in gri and sweat, but the man still broke into a grin that dwarfed her own when he spotted Lisa.
He hurried up, dropped his things after a few yards, and called out to the others to keep an eye on them, then began to jog toward her with a hearty laugh. His companions complained.
She t him halfway and he stumbled back when she hugged him, then jumped when so of her drink splashed on his back.
"Oh, sorry, sorry."
Had she forgotten to still it that ti?
"Aww," Micah said, conversation forgotten.
"Oi, Chandler! Carry your own shit yourself, old man!" one of his teammates called.
Ryan had an idea, nudged the guy next to him, and jogged off toward the group of climbers.
"Happy birthday, kiddo," Garen said when they walked past the two and Ryan tried to ignore the sll. Had they just gotten out of the Tower? He focused on his beer and Micah's cologne right behind him.
"Ryan, right?" Allison asked, not much better either.
"Yes, ma'am. It's nice to see you again. I was wondering if you might want so help?" He nodded down at the luggage.
She quirked an eyebrow but shrugged. "Sure." Over her shoulder, she added, "He's a friend of Lisa. It's good."
The bags were heavy, even for him, but Micah still managed to force two over his shoulders with his empty hands. Allison watched for a mont longer before she moved on to hug Lisa, and the others ca to help.
He glanced around, downed his drink really quick, and put the empty bottle on a windowsill.
"I could have carried it," Anne said.
"It's fine," he told her, trying to keep the bite out of his voice. The day was too long for anger.
"Great. Why do we have to carry their luggage again?" Navid complained.
"What? Not used to carrying things yourself?" Micah said ahead of them with a strain in his voice.
"No, but they probably have enhanced strength and we don't."
"Speak for yourself," Ryan said. It got him a look of sheer surprise, which only made him chuckle. "Oh, you really would believe anything we told you, wouldn't you, Madin?"
He'd noticed. As the day had gone on, Navid had glanced at Anne less and less to see if what they said was true. Which, if he thought about it, was a shit thing to do anyway, so he deserved a prank or two.
"Screw you, Payne!"
He hurried to catch up and on their way, stared at the other two mbers, though, wondering who they were. And he glanced at the bags every now and then, wondering what was in them.
Treasure?
One of the two was a man sowhere between his thirties or forties, maybe, with short, brown hair and a scraggly beard that made it seem like his hair went all the way around. The beard might have been from the expedition, though. They had been in there for over a month.
Ryan didn't recognize him at all. The comfortable clothing he'd switched into and lumpy sacks of equipnt didn't help.
The other, on the other hand, was a middle-aged woman sowhere between Garen and Allison in age with greying hair tied back into a ponytail and skin close to Micah's. She had a gold sickle at her hip that she didn't seem to care about being seen with or being stolen.
He knew one person whose description that fit: Aishah Gardener, of the actual Gardener family and Class. She used the sickle for Skills and spells, he knew, expanding its reach far beyond its normal bounds to clear entire fields, and switched to a staff in close combat.
He couldn't see the staff anywhere, though. It might have been in one of the longer sacks, or did she change weapons? He stared at her, suddenly worried. What if she had lost it?
Sohow, the woman seed to have noticed him and called ahead, "Hey Chandler, who's the fan?"
Huh?
"Fan?" Thomas asked.
After finishing his sentence, the man turned back from where he walked with Lisa and Allison, looked, and said, "Oh, that's just Ryan. A classmate of Lisa. Give him an autograph if he asks, will you?"
"I didn't—" he croaked and cleared his throat, but the others had heard and the damage was done.
"Relax, kiddo. They'll be eating dinner with us, so you can ask them all the questions you want, then."
The woman scowled. "I did not agree to that."
"Do you have any questions now?" Lisa asked.
"Uhh." He glanced at the different people around him, their bags, what might be inside. "Uhh. Uh, so is this your new team then?"
"Only two-thirds of it. There are two more, but Nadir couldn't co and Lachlan wanted to drop by his own place and clean up there before he cos over."
"Oh, uh, I think Mave is stopping by this evening," Lisa said as if she had only just rembered.
Garen groaned.
"What?" Ryan asked.
"Those two can't stand each other."
"Oh."
Was he allowed to ask why?
"Besides," Aisah said, "there is no 'this team' yet. This is was a test, not a permanent decision."
"Oh, co on," the other man said. "How can you not be convinced yet that this would work?"
"The way you fought that Guardian …" she trailed off and shook her head.
"So what? I'm still young. You said it yourself. We're allowed to be a bit risky. That's why we wanted you two— Uhh …"
She glared at him. "Go ahead. Finish that sentence."
In a ek voice, he almost asked, "Elders on the team?"
"Rude. And stupid." She quickened her pace.
"You're wise, is what I an! And you have the higher levels to carry us through the tougher challenges!"
He called after her, but she didn't slow down until she caught up with the girls at the head of the group who were looking back every now and then and gossiping.
Ryan still stared, and the strange man noticed.
"Are you a fan of , too?" he sounded almost hopeful.
"No," he said. "I an, I don't know you— I an, I don't recognize you, sir. But I would like to?"
"Natan Matas." He said it like he would extend his hand for a shake, but they were both full.
Ryan really didn't know him, which ant he wasn't famous, only recently famous, or he was from another city.
He must have seen it in his eyes, though, because he moved his head a little closer, stared, and asked, "Nothing?"
He said it like he was asking, Seriously?
"Uh, I—"
He groaned and lifted a laden hand to point at him. "That won't happen in a few years, you hear ? People are going to recognize then. Us." He looked ahead at the other three.
"I look forward to it?" Ryan tried.
"You bet."
He wondered what kind of climber he was. They had a [Gardener], [Adventurer], [Archer], and …? They would probably need a dedicated [Mage], maybe soone focused on defense, and a [Healer]? Although, it was possible they all had overlapping callings in so way.
Either way, this was aweso. They might not have looked like it in their clothing, but these were the type of people who could have stood up to sothing like Maria. The type of people he'd rather have saved them. eting them was the best part about trying to beco a climber.
When they got back, Garen dropped his dirty bags on the kitchen table and told them to put the rest wherever. "But no peeking."
"Did you bring anything back?" Lisa asked.
"Tons." He headed for the doorless door. "A lot is in Guild storage, but this is mostly the non-perishables."
"Did you bring anything back for ," she anded herself.
"Presents after we wash up!" He was a few steps up the stairs when his two guests still standing in the hallway made so noise.
"Uh, Garen?" Natan called. "Where do we go?"
"Huh? Oh, the uh—"
"I'll show you to the guest bathrooms," Allison said and shook her head.
"Sorry," the man said in a calr voice. "The others always knew where everything was."
His previous teammates? Ryan frowned. Why wasn't he climbing with them, then?
Allison looked past them at the group of teens clustered around the kitchen and added, "But really, no peeking."
Lisa waited for a half-second after they were gone to pounce on one of the duffels Garen had dropped on the kitchen table. "There's sothing good in here, I just know it."
"Yeah?" Micah asked.
Myra stepped forward and began to grope one of the lumpy sacks as if she could make out the equipnt inside.
This, Ryan was less comfortable with. "Uh, shouldn't we wait for Garen to co back and show us? Or you, I an."
"It's fine, I just want to shake it." She did. "And probe, and maybe— Anne? Micah?" She turned to them.
"Huh?"
"Anything?"
"She wants us to tell her if we can see anything magical."
"Oh! Uhm … no?" He glanced around and pointed. "That bag has a lot of lightning essence around it, though. Weird, sinking orb thingies."
The others looked around until they found what he ant and Myra drifted over to grope that bag instead.
"What if you set sothing off?" Ryan asked.
She waved to brush him off.
"He might have a point," Micah said. "Most often, when I see essence around stuff, it's because it's either strong or … actually active?"
Myra gave him a long look, glanced at Lisa, and asked, "How long were they gone again?"
"Almost six weeks?"
"Right. I'm going to go with 'strong'."
"Yeah, but it could be both."
That gave her pause.
"Six weeks," was all Ryan said as he took a step toward one of the stinking bags for himself.
"You know what that ans, right?" Sion asked. "He quit his job and they're splitting this six ways, but he still needs to earn money to live and pay for stuff. Even if he goes into proper retirent."
"So … this is probably a literal fortune?" Thea asked.
They hesitated for a second, turned and considered the dozen or so bags, but then they were all on them, feeling their contents through the material, shaking so, putting their ears to others, and holding them up to those who could sense magic in the room to get their thoughts on things.
"Let look," Micah said.
"Look?"
"Shift through different essences. It'll only take a mont."
"Ah?"
"Hey."
"Do you see anything in this one?" Sion asked Anne. "Oh, what about this one?"
"I found sothing roundish. Round and hard. A ball? An orb? So kind of magical orb?"
"Hey!"
"Magical orbs, magical orbs, what do we know about magical orbs?" Navid asked with a frown.
"It could be a safeguard orb. You know the ones you twist to create a safe boundary around your campsite?" Thea gestured with her hands.
"'Could be a bomb."
"A bomb?!"
"I don't know. It could be."
"I found an opening for mana," Myra said. "Should I push so mana into it? Just a little bit."
"Hey, don't do that."
"Just a little bit."
"Do it, do it!" multiple people edged her on.
"I just told you no—"
Whatever was in the bag, it began to float and carried the entire bag a few centiters off the floor.
"Hey! EVERYONE STOP!" the voice echoed through the room, and maybe even the entire property. An announcent Skill.
They turned and Maverick stood there, looking genuinely exasperated for the first ti Ryan had seen. "I thought you were just going to have a birthday party. The worst I imagined was you going for the old man's liquor stash—"
"Garen has a liquor stash?" Navid asked.
He got a double nod from her.
"—but this?" He frowned. "Are you drunk?"
She frowned.
"We had one beer," Ryan said.
"Yeah, but we could have had so much more," Navid whispered and looked around as if he could still find it.
Lisa was still frowning.
"So no, we're not drunk," he added for clarification. And apparently, he probably wouldn't have been drunk after three either. It was a grim, sobering thought. He stepped away from the loot.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Garen is back," she cheered.
"So I sensed."
"Who's that?" Rania, Thea's friend, whispered in the background.
"He's freshening up and we were just …"
"Going through the loot of people who can climb to the twentieth floor like animals digging through the trash."
"The old twentieth floor," Lisa corrected him.
"Garen's housekeeper," Micah whispered over.
"He doesn't look like a housekeeper."
"He was a climber."
"Did you have permission?" Mave asked, rubbing his temple.
"They only said no peeking. But, we didn't actually open any of the—" She glanced to the side and Myra quickly redid the buttons she'd been undoing. "—bags."
"Of course, not. Of course, you didn't have permission," Mave said. "You do know this is the type of loot that could wipe the entire house off the street without a warning?"
Ryan glanced at the bag he'd just touched and gulped. No wonder why the man was so tense. The rest of them who hadn't also took a step back.
Mave gave them a long look, nodded once, and then broke into a grin.
"What?" Lisa asked.
He just began to laugh and walked down the hallway.
"What?" she repeated.
"Oh, your faces!"
"Anne! Why didn't you warn us?"
"You kind of deserved it."
"So … there's no bomb?" Micah asked.
"No," she said. "they would have given anything like that to the Guild for an initial public safety appraisal … I hope. Otherwise, there are fines."
"So there could be a bomb."
"How about, instead of touching the super dangerous loot," Navid said, "I say we go looking for that liquor cabinet first?"
"Why 'look'?" Lisa asked. "I know where they all are."
"You do?"
"Why does he need a retired climber as a housekeeper?"
"I don't know, I always thought he was also sort of a bodyguard or sothing. He does a lot of housesitting when they are gone."
"Yeah. There used to be one in the living room, but he broke that one. Uhm, there's one in the library upstairs, one in the other house, two in the guest house—left, across the yard—another in his room, but that's off-limits, and then there's the wine cellar in the back right. But he keeps more than just wine there."
Navid got up, dusted off his hands, and headed for the door, saying, "You really should have said sothing sooner."
"What? Your cousin would have shut the idea down anyway."
"That's why we have distractions."
One by one, they shrugged and followed him. It seed better than blowing the kitchen up.
"Oi, what?" Micah called, though. "Not cool! Break a rule that we can all break."
"Micah, that makes no sense," Sion said.
"You know what I an."
Their wine cellar was dark and musky, with more empty slots in the racks than filled, and Navid comnted about the sore sight. "If you have a wine cellar, at least bother to take care of it."
Ryan wouldn't know anything about that. The closest he had been to a wine cellar in his life was a restaurant with wine racks in its decor. He suddenly felt like he was in another world.
Who were these strangers around him? He saw most of them sotis in school, but he only really hung out with two of them. The idiot who looked like she thought this was a boring pasti, and the kid on the stairs hissing concerns down at them.
"Ooh, this one is good," Navid said.
"Which one?" Ryan asked without thinking. He was taller than him, by a little bit. It felt weird that he would be the expert here.
"The Elora's Mansion cask, found deep in the Ruins with fifty other bottles twelve years back. My uncle had one of them. He constantly compares them to ones he buys or finds."
"Sounds expensive."
"That's because it is. It's the type you save for special occasions." So saying, he looked at Ryan with a glimr in his eyes and he pulled the stopper. The heavy sll of hard liquor filled the air.
He had his own misgivings, then. He knew they were rich, but they were still breaking rules, right? And Garen wasn't that rich. He was famous. What if this had been expensive for him or if he had gotten it as a gift?
But despite all of it, Ryan soon found himself sitting on the dirty floor near the stairs with a glass of brandy in hand. There had been so in a cabinet. He slled it, as if that would do anything, lit up only by the low afternoon light and a single lamp.
The others who had declined to break the rules along with them sat on the stairs over them or stood and watched, making him feel self-conscious.
"To Lisa," Navid said. "The birthday kid. Sorry for having such a boring birthday, but it's not like you actually planned sothing."
She nodded once. "I did not. This is great."
"To Lisa," the five of them repeated and toasted. Ryan drank, frowned at the odd taste, and—
He choked a second after it went down his throat.
"First ti?" Thomas asked.
He nodded and coughed to get it out. That felt like liquid fire. How did anyone think that was good or … or why would they pay ridiculous sums for it?
"You get used to it."
He looked up, but miraculously, Lisa and the other four didn't have any problems, although he did see hints of grimaces. "Do you all have practice or what?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Our parents," Myra just said.
So it was normal in their hos? He tried another sip, but it wasn't much better than the first.
Before the third, Micah suddenly called down, "Garen on the walkways, Garen on the walkways!"
Oh, thank fuck.
Ryan rushed up, placed the glass on the stairs, and dusted himself off, but Navid grabbed his arm. "Hey, don't waste it."
He hesitated and let out an inward curse, but then he grabbed and downed the rest, feeling like his throat was dying in the process. At least, the others cheered and clapped him on the shoulder for it.
When they ran up through the door, the spell broke and Ryan wondered what the hell had just happened. When he looked up, though, he found a part of it had remained. The sky looked different to him. It was stupid, he knew, but it seed unfamiliar from this perspective.
Everything did, and everyone.
Garen was cleaning up the kitchen in a clean shirt and pants. He didn't ask where they had been, but Ryan still felt like he looked at him a mont too long. He felt warm. Was he warm? Were his cheeks red? Myra's were.
They sat, all except Lisa who was told to wait while he cobbled sothing together in the hallway where they couldn't see him. So Ryan got up and told Rania to switch seats with him.
"Uhm—"
"Please?"
She did and glanced at him, Myra, and Thea like there was sothing there, so he groaned and said, "No, not that. Micah, [Chill] us." He pointed a thumb at her next to him.
Myra nodded. "That makes more sense."
"Uhm, okay?"
Navid chuckled, though. "Ryan, that's not the type of warm you get rid of through a chill."
"It's fine," Anne told him. "They won't notice. Or care."
He still felt antsy.
Garen ca back through the door with a large wooden crate that looked like a toolbox in hand. At the sa ti, their other guests ca down the hallway, led by Mave and Allison.
Surprisingly, they wore new clothes that fit them and Natan had shaved. He still had a towel over his shoulders and was using one end of it to rub the side of his face.
"That's the present?" Lisa asked.
"Yep. Just had to stuff it all inside."
"Inside?"
He put the crate on the low table between the couches and lifted both of the slanted sides. Countless small boxes fell into view—so it was a toolbox—but instead of hamrs, nails, and screwdrivers, they were filled with crystals, glowing potions, and body parts from monsters.
"Tadaa!" Garen said.
"That's, uh … wow," Lisa said.
"What is it?" Rania asked. "Is she an [Alchemist]?"
"No, it's for your Sam," Garen said. "You said you wanted to experint with different things. I've got a few different mana potions—"
He lifted out a few of the tiny bottles to show her, and Micah looked like he had to physically restrain himself from getting off the opposite couch.
"—so other potions, I got scales from giant Salamanders and other monsters we fought. So ats slices— These are all samples of the things we brought back. I figured you could experint with them and if you need more, or find any that are useful to you, just ask."
Lisa looked through the options herself with a smile. "That's … thank you, Garen. So much."
"I figured you had to make so progress sooner or later."
Ryan smiled at the scene and it took him a mont to realize it a lancholy one. He'd used to daydream about this. Or sothing like this. Instead of Lisa, it had been Micah and Ryan would bring him back stuff from the Tower that he could experint with, and he would light up, and thank him, and—
It'd been stupid.
"You totally showed us up," Ryan said.
Garen looked surprised. "Did I? Why, what did you get her?"
"So snacks and a boat ride ticket to Cairn. But it's fine, we're going to get a whole bunch of stuff ourselves in the sumr."
Instead of getting things for him, Micah could get them himself, with them. It was better that way, he supposed.
The guy nodded, almost to himself, and said, "Paint."
"Paint?"
"For hand painting? That's what I got her."
He frowned and asked, "She told you about that?", though Lisa was crouched right there. She was a little distracted with the assortnt, he guessed.
"She said her family liked to do it."
"Huh. Why didn't I think about that?"
"Oh, you have hand paint here?" Rania asked. "Why don't we do that? It's better than staring at … at slice— Oh my God, that thing just moved."
Garen glanced down and brushed it off, "Just a death spasm."
"How recent was its death?"
So she's definitely not a climber, Ryan thought. But he was still on-board with the painting idea.
"Garen," Natan spoke up. "You said there would be food."
"Well, then we can just paint after, or— Anne, when do you have to be ho?"
"Officially by eight, but my mom said nine would also be fine."
"Okay, then we still have so ti. Now, who wants to help us cook?"
Micah raised a hand, Anne followed suit, then Sion, Ryan slowly raised one, Thea, and Rania did, too. Navid was last with a shrug. "What?"
"Alright, then. Cooking it is! Sothing everyone can help with … cutting vegetables and potatoes, maybe? Mave, did you stock up?"
"No."
He froze on the way to the kitchen.
"Not for fourteen people, I don't think."
He didn't miss a beat and continued on, "Alright then, a restaurant it is! Everyone, shoes on!"
"Fifteen," Natan added. "Lachlan is still going to show up."
"We'll write him a note!"
"Or we could just not," Mave said.
They headed for the door, but the rest of them still sat there, unsure of what to do. Was this really happening? Were they even in the mood for a restaurant?
But Lisa closed the toolbox, glanced at them, and said, "C'mon. It's their treat. Probably."
And that settled it. Ryan pushed himself up. Eating free dinner with at least three famous climbers and his friends? There was no way he was about to complain about that.
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