As the sun crept over the horizon, warmth flooded Alicia’s branches, and she woke with a heavy sigh of relief. Although she was still merged with her Heart Tree, the memories of her many injuries from yesterday lingered, which created some unusual sensations; it was hard to translate the human sensation of lower back pain to something more befitting a tree, yet apparently she found a way.

  She poked her head out from her trunk to check on Kat, who was sleeping peacefully in a pile of blankets on her bedroom floor. Tabitha was asleep as well, her back pushed against the door with a blanket draped over her shoulders.

  Alicia was relieved to see everyone alive and well. Although she didn’t harbor the same mistrust towards Roxy as everyone else seemed to, it was certainly nice to be validated. At this point, there was nothing left to do but soak up the sunlight and let her Regeneration do its thing. She desperately wished she could go cuddle up with Kat, but steeled her resolve and instead stepped out onto her front lawn.

  Returning to her humanoid body stung. She grew another staff to lean on, then carefully walked towards Elias’s pond for her morning soak. She found a few colorful bruises as she walked, and memories of their first delve returned in waves as she remembered where all her injuries had come from.

  It could have been much worse. I’m alive—we’re all alive—which is what matters. Plus, most of my missing HP is from my barriers. When they take damage instead of me, I’m completely sidestepping all the usual side effects of being hit.

  Planting her staff in the ground, she slowly yawned while she sat down. Her legs dipped into the water, and she hummed happily to herself. The water was warmer than usual, and it felt incredible. Roots pushed out from her legs, holding her in place while starting the process of pulling water and nutrients from the earth underneath her.

  I wonder when Elias wakes up. Does sunlight feel different underwater? Is it easier to ignore if you want to sleep in?

  Alicia amused herself by thinking of all the different ways Elias might sleep. She pictured him nestled in a bed of mud, a fancy kelp mask draped across his face, and made herself giggle.

  “What’s so funny?” Elias asked.

  Opening her eyes, Alicia saw the Mermaid floating lazily near the surface of the pond, the sunlight dancing off his scales.

  “I just realized I have no idea how you sleep, and I was picturing you with a little kelp facemask. Did you just get up?” Alicia asked.

  “Me? No, I’ve been awake for hours. I’ve been checking on you pretty frequently, but I thought you were asleep. I assumed the laughter meant you were awake.”

  “What? No, I’ve been awake the whole time!”

  “Ooohh… now I feel stupid. Have we just been awkwardly sitting next to each other for hours and not saying anything?” Elias looked over at Alicia, then they both broke out into laughter.

  “Now that you mention it, I don’t think I ever mentioned how the Change affected my view of time. If there’s nothing going on, and I’m just alone with my thoughts, hours and hours can pass in what feels like an instant. I normally live a pretty slow life, and it’s not a huge issue. It’s a little weird having people around, but thankfully we all have different schedules. Kat is nocturnal, obviously, but Tab does most of her camming in the early evening, so she sleeps in pretty late.”

  “Do you think Roxy’s an early riser?” Elias asked.

  “I’m not sure. If she is, then she’s staying cooped up in that house. You don’t think she’s waiting for someone to go get her, do you? I’d hate to think she’s keeping herself cooped up just to play it safe.”

  “You could go get her, if you wanted to. I won’t mind.”

  Alicia turned her head to look towards the house Roxy was staying in. “Not yet. We’re in no rush, and she’s probably used to waiting around anyways. Plus, Tab and Kat would probably say it’s better to let her sit.”

  “Well, they’re not here, are they?” Elias said, raising an eyebrow. “How do you feel about her?”

  “It’s… I’m still working that out,” Alicia muttered. “It feels pretty gross to think that we were followed home after our trip to the city, but I also understand where she’s coming from. After everything Tab has told me about the Guilds, Roxy’s story makes perfect sense. I see why she’d want to leave Ashes To Ashes, and why she would have resorted to stealing to do so.”

  “Is that it?” Elias asked, leaning against the edge of the pond. “I feel like you’re leaving something out.”

  Alicia sighed before laying back. “I guess I don’t entirely understand her hesitance about approaching us. If this were all a trap set by Ashes To Ashes, what would be the point? If they knew where the Key Dungeon was, they would just knock it out in a day and go back to their usual routine. No offense to Roxy, but I can’t imagine her attempted theft was enough to warrant some over-complicated scheme for revenge on their part.”

  “Huh, good point,” Elias muttered. “I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”

  “What about you?” Alicia asked. “Do you trust her?”

  Elias planted his hands in the dirt and jumped out of the water, then spun and laid down next to Alicia. “I think I’m pretty torn. On my end, it’s really frustrating that I can’t help you all out in the Dungeon, so I’m happy you found another party member that can. I’m also willing to trust that the Guilds know something we don’t; maybe they’re playing 4D chess around each other, and we’re just caught in the middle. I think I’m mostly concerned about the timing of her arrival. If she’s been here the whole time, why not approach you guys before you start delving? You were training for days, but she waits until after Tab’s announcement? When you’re already deep inside the Dungeon?”

  “Blegh. I hate Guild politics,” Alicia grumbled. Instead of thinking about it more, she turned to look at Elias. “You’re not gonna dry out, are you? Being out of the water?”

  “Nah, not this quick. It takes a few hours before I start to get itchy. Besides, I’ve got my tail!” With a smirk, Elias quickly pulled up his tail and splashed water on himself and Alicia.

  Alicia gasped and sat up quickly. “You’re so lucky I don’t wear clothes, mister!” She paused briefly, then remembered that getting splashed meant nothing to her. If anything, the water felt cool and refreshing.

  “Oh, please, you’re a plant,” Elias said, sticking his tongue out. They both started laughing again, and once Alicia had laid back down, Elias spoke up again. “So, what are you gonna do once this is all over?”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “God, I have no idea,” Alicia said. “The easiest thing would be to return to ORC like nothing happened, except now I won’t be alone when I’m not working. Kat’s really excited about this Dungeon, though, and I’m starting to see why. Yes, it’s pretty scary, but with some practice and some extra Levels, I could see myself having a lot of fun just wandering the Dungeon, especially since it’s going to be sticking around for a bit afterwards.”

  “Becoming an adrenaline junkie?”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far. It’s more like… using my Class is surprisingly fun, and I like working together with Tab and Kat. Being more active is nice, too. It’s really easy for me to ignore physical activity since I’m a Dryad.”

  “I get where you’re coming from about your Class. Actually using my abilities, feeling like I’m helping out here, it’s nice. Even though I can’t go in with you.”

  With nothing else to do, Alicia and Elias spent several hours talking. They talked about delving for a while, with Elias sharing some of his favorite Delving Influencers, and eventually they moved on to talking about their pre-Change lives. They talked about school, about what their plans had been for the future, and even how they’d fared the night of the Change.

  Eventually, Tabitha wandered out of Alicia’s house and joined them. She was pleased to see everyone in one piece, but refused to let them lounge around any further. Despite Alicia’s protests, Tabitha started guiding them through a series of basic stretches and exercises to hopefully speed up Alicia’s recovery. While they stretched, they debriefed from yesterday’s delve, picking apart what worked and what didn’t in an attempt to improve for next time. They were roughly half an hour into this debrief when a voice rang out from down the street.

  “Hello?” the voice called out. “It’s Roxy! I’m awake and announcing my presence!”

  Tabitha immediately made a face, silently protesting Roxy’s arrival. She stood up, turned to face Roxy, and silently watched until she walked close enough to start talking. “Morning, Roxy.”

  “Mornin’ Tab!” Roxy said with a big smile. “Mornin’ Alicia! How’d you sleep? Wait, do Dryads sleep? Is that insensitive to ask?”

  Despite Tabitha’s sour mood, Alicia found herself laughing. “Yes, we sleep just like most other Races. And no, it’s a fair question. In general, ORC likes to remind people that no question is inherently bad, so long as it’s asked in good faith. Though quite a few people forget that last part.”

  “Ooh, tell me about it,” Roxy said, “I’ve been trying to read up on all the different legal cases around the country ever since I left Ashes To Ashes. There’s so much happening, all the time, and it’s hard to stay up to date. It’s fun and easy to read the big wins, like sex work being legalized, but there are so many people trying to use the Change as an excuse to steal away more rights. Just the other day I read about some housing development company petitioning to remove minimum sizes on housing because they think certain races don’t need the extra space. And, like, sure I guess that’s true on paper, but it’s so obvious they’re just trying to cram everyone into cheaper, smaller houses to maximize their profits.”

  At this point, Roxy’s face was bright red, and she was practically fuming with anger. The entire display seemed to catch Tabitha off guard. “That’s, uh… I hadn’t heard about that one,” the Foxgirl muttered.

  “Shoot, you probably don’t want to hear me rant about that… I’ll try to keep my ramblings to myself. Anyways, I’m eager to tackle the Dungeon! Do we have a game plan for today?”

  “We wait, at least for now. There’s nothing we can do until the sun sets,” Alicia said.

  Roxy walked past Alicia and kneeled by the edge of the pond. “That makes sense, since Kat’s a Vampire and all. What do you normally do while you wait?” As she spoke, Roxy lazily traced a finger over the surface of the water, smirking as the ripples bounced into each other.

  “Like you don’t know,” Tabitha said, her voice bitter again. “You’ve been watching us this whole time, haven’t you?”

  With a heavy sigh, Roxy drew her hand away from the water. “Look, I can’t apologize enough for following you home, Alicia. But, if nothing else, I promise that I haven’t just been spying on you since then. I wandered the neighborhood a bit, trying to find signs of other Guilds, and I did a lot of quietly panicking to myself. One reason I didn’t approach you before you went into the Dungeon was because I didn’t know you’d gone in. Once I put two and two together, I ran after you and thankfully found you before anyone got seriously hurt.”

  Alicia moved to sit next to Roxy, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I can’t thank you enough for what you did. Regardless of everything else that’s going on, that was really heroic.”

  The two girls smiled at each other, but after a second Tabitha loudly cleared her throat. “If we need something to do, we could always get in a bit of sparring practice. If you’re really committed to this, Roxy, that means you and I are the primary DPS of the team. We’ll need to familiarize ourselves with each other’s movements so we don’t bump heads while we’re delving.”

  “I can do that!” Roxy immediately jumped to her feet.

  To give them space, Elias slid back into his pond, then looked over at Alicia. “Hey, since they’re going to be busy, you should jump in here with me so I can heal you some more. I barely use my mana in my day-to-day life, so I’ve still got a decent amount.”

  “Ohh, spa service and a show? What did I do to deserve that?” Alicia smirked as she jumped into the water, humming with excitement. Within seconds, she’d settled against the edge of the pond and the water around her began to stir. It stung just as much as last night, but when combined with the heat from the sun, it felt more tolerable this time.

  Tabitha and Roxy grabbed several sticks that had been scattered around the street, then took their positions opposite each other. Roxy was subtly bouncing as she prepared herself, the infectious positivity almost infecting Alicia, but Tabitha seemed unusually stiff. Having spent quite a bit of time training with her, Alicia was used to Tab making small jokes and trying to playfully keep her on edge, but that joviality was nowhere to be seen.

  Without warning, Tab crouched down and sprang at Roxy. Alicia saw nothing but a furry blur as she closed the distance, her impromptu weapon ready to strike. By the time she slowed down, she was already in front of Roxy, who yelped as she unsuccessfully tried to parry the attack. Tabitha’s stick struck Roxy’s hip, and not even a second later the Foxgirl was pivoting to continue her assault.

  The mock fight continued for several minutes. Roxy certainly wasn’t a slouch, and managed to avoid a few of the later attacks, but she was clearly at a disadvantage. Alicia felt bad that Tabitha wasn’t holding back, but knew there was nothing she could say to convince Tab to slow down.

  Tabitha’s last strike collided with the back of Roxy’s legs, breaking her stick while knocking the raven-haired Human to her knees. She winced as she landed, and she threw her own stick on the ground as she threw up her hands.

  “Okay, you win! I get it, you’re a better fighter than me!” Roxy said.

  “You’re Level Six, Roxy. I expected better from you,” Tabitha responded, spitting on the ground in front of her.

  “I’m not a duelist! I’m built to catch opponents off guard while they’re distracted by other fighters! All my abilities are meant for staying hidden, looking for weak spots, things like that.”

  Tabitha continued circling as she spoke. “If that’s true, shouldn’t you have an ability that allows you to read your opponent’s movements? Why weren’t you able to predict my attacks? I was purposely giving you opportunities to react, and you still barely held your own.”

  “I-I wasn’t expecting such a steep difficulty curve!” Roxy protested. “I thought we’d, I dunno, warm up for a bit first!”

  “Alicia can last longer against me than you can, and she’s half your Level. She’s not even built for speed, she’s a Bulwark. If you’re Level Six, you’ve had three separate occasions to boost your stats, so why aren’t you faster?”

  With a frustrated groan, Roxy jumped to her feet again. “Okay, fine! Now that I know what you’re doing, let’s go again!”

  After grabbing another stick, Tabitha immediately resumed her attack. This time, however, Roxy seemed more determined. The smile had faded from her face, and she narrowed her eyes as she watched Tabitha dash around her. With each attack, Roxy seemed more capable of defending herself. After several more minutes had passed, she’d even managed to land an attack of her own against Tabitha.

  When Tabitha called off the fight, tossing her stick to the ground, she still seemed unhappy. “Alright, maybe you’re not completely a lost cause.”

  “I’m not used to fighting people, okay?” Roxy said, now kneeling as she panted. “I like delving, fighting monsters with a whole party on my side. You want me to pull my weight? Give me my swords back, and let’s head into the Dungeon!”

  “All in due time, Roxy,” Tabitha said. “For now, I’ve seen all I want to see. Take a break, we’ll reconvene in a bit.”