Owin and Shade spent the night watching Miya work. She was focused with Basolia watching over her. Still, she chatted nonstop and found some things to burn, just because it was fun. Althowin had checked in before going to sleep, and everyone else had gone to bed much earlier.

  It was similar to Owin’s last night before the Ocean, and he found that comforting. Now, Shade was also there, and he had burned more than both Miya and Owin. It was a little concerning.

  Basolia provided items without question. These were mostly leaves, twigs, or other dried plants that burned quickly, especially when ignited with alchemical magic. Or things Owin just didn’t understand, which was more likely.

  “Are you nervous?” Miya asked. Her hands glowed as she hammered a rock, turning it over with each strike. There wasn’t anything visual changing with each strike, so he just had to assume she was doing something productive.

  “I don’t know. I think we will be okay. After everything else, I’m worried about everyone else.” Owin looked at Shade, who poked at Basolia. “Once we get a few floors in with Shade’s new abilities, we’ll be really strong.”

  “We probably should have practiced more.” Shade pulled back as Basolia expelled a cold mist.

  “How many layers does the core have?” Basolia asked.

  Miya’s index appeared as she hammered the rock one more time. “Fifteen.”

  “Begin to shape.”

  The glow on her hands changed colors as she continued hammering. Now, the rock visibly changed, smoothing out the rough edges.

  “You can practice while you’re in the dungeon, right?” she asked as she continued working.

  “We can. I was told it’s better not to think of fighting in the dungeon as practice.”

  “Who said that?” Shade asked.

  Owin scratched his head. He was enjoying not being in armor. Wearing the restrictive chitin again was going to take some adjusting. “Althowin.” As much as he wanted to tell Shade about Zezog, he had promised to not tell anyone. Even the skeleton.

  “Have you thought about your fusion yet?” Miya continued hammering the rock. She was somehow stretching it into what looked almost like a sausage.

  Basolia stayed close, out of Shade’s reach, and watched every movement Miya made.

  “Not really. It’s not that far away, I guess. I’ve seen elves, a vampire, and a fox, right?” Owin looked at Shade.

  “If by fox, you mean Althowin’s legendary kitsune, then sure, you’re right. About as right as you would be if you said I was alive. Or dead.” Shade put his hands behind his head and leaned back. “I think you should fuse with a skeleton.”

  “You?”

  “Ew, no. Like a lich.”

  Owin frowned.

  Miya stopped hammering and looked back.

  “Oh,” Shade said. “Sorry. I know your friend is a lich.”

  “Yeah.” Even if he could fuse with Artivan, would it be the best thing he could do for him? If he was still inside the Great Forest, maybe it would be better just to kill him to let him rest. Either way, he wasn’t going to be going back to the Great Forest until he was a lot stronger.

  Miya turned back after a command from Basolia. She had turned the sausage-like shape into a spiral. Each strike was smoothing it into a disk that hid the seams. No matter how much he watched, Owin couldn’t guess what she was making, and nobody would tell him.

  He walked to the edge of the table, grabbed a stool, and sat close enough to watch everything Miya did. “What is a kitsune?”

  “It’s one of the Seven Omens,” Shade said. He had somehow closed his eye sockets to make it look like he was resting. It was disturbing to look at.

  “It is not a kitsune,” Basolia said. “It is the kitsune. The Seven Omens are legendary mobs that travel between the 7 towers of Verdantallis. They are thought to be impossible to locate, and even more impossible to defeat.”

  “Have I seen one?” Owin asked.

  “You would know,” Shade said. “Together, we haven’t seen one. I doubt you did before. They’re memorable.”

  “If they’re so difficult, how did Althowin fuse with one? Don’t you have to fight it to fuse?”

  Miya had stopped hammering to listen, but Basolia immediately told her to continue. She was definitely taking longer between each strike to listen.

  “Fusion requires a mental and physical battle as the body and mind of the hero and mob are joined into one. Losing the battle will result in the hero becoming a strengthened mob, who will disappear once defeated and respawn as the original form. These internal battles result in the different aspects heroes take on after fusing,” Basolia said.

  Owin furrowed his brow and watched the stone disk take shape. Miya had grown stronger in her short time with Althowin. Whatever training she was undergoing was different from Ernie and Katalin. Miya’s arms were toned and there was a deadly precision with each hammer strike that hadn’t been there when Owin had watched her in the past. He was curious just how much her attributes had improved.

  “But Althowin won the fight against the kitsune, so why does she have the ears and tail?” Owin asked.

  “It is impossible to fuse without some visual changes. If a hero struggles, more of their appearance will change. The famed hero Zevvrin is nearly entirely scaltari, meaning he had nearly lost the fight to fuse.”

  “Do you know everything?” Owin asked.

  “No,” Basolia said. “I am capable of holding information provided externally. I do not have a memory of my own time in the dungeon.”

  “So, you’re not like me?”

  “I cannot leave Althowin’s service or enter a dungeon. I am an item.”

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  “Fold,” Basolia commanded.

  Miya continued hammering, but instead of flattening the disk, she was rolling it like a pastry. If he hadn’t seen it in its original form, Owin would never have guessed the item had originally been a rock.

  “If you’re just an item, do you actually think and feel stuff?” Owin asked.

  “Yes.”

  Owin looked over. Shade was no longer pretending to sleep. He was just as curious.

  “What exactly do you do?” he asked.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I manage the workshops, inventory, and materials for the 7 Shard Hero and act as a guide for her apprentices.” Basolia vanished into the stone table and reappeared a moment later, depositing a long, thin mana battery in front of Miya.

  “And you like it?” Owin asked.

  “Yes.”

  Shade shrugged.

  “What are the other Seven Omens?” Miya asked.

  “I do not have that information,” Basolia said.

  Owin turned to Shade. “Do you know?”

  “I have some faint memories of stories, but no. Not really. I can see a few half-formed images of weird creatures. It’s like a dream. Do I dream? I don’t dream. You have to sleep to dream. Did you know that?”

  “Did I know that?”

  Shade gestured. “There’s three people in the room, Owin. I’m not always talking to you.”

  “So, you’re asking me, the specter, or the human if they know how dreaming works? There’s only one person here who has to sleep, Shade.”

  “I do know how it works, just so that’s clear,” Miya said.

  “I just wanted to make sure everyone knew.”

  “Fold the battery inside,” Basolia said.

  Miya grabbed the mana battery and held it in front of her goggles. The blue light reflected off everything except Basolia. “Right.” She placed it on the disk and changed the glow of her hands. It pushed slightly into the rock like it was soft clay. As soon as she started hammering again, the mana battery disappeared.

  Basolia continued giving directions of which way to fold and shape the stone, which Miya did her best to follow. The process was mesmerizing, even if Owin only partially understood what was happening.

  “What if I fused with an Omen? Or like a Horror?”

  Miya stopped hammering. “A what?”

  “There’s this one called Baby Head,” Owin said. He had seen two Horrors, but the second one was harder to explain. It was a weird fiery worm, and that just wasn’t a helpful description.

  “I don’t know. That sounds like a bad idea.” She continued hammering, shaping what had been a rock, a sausage, a disk, back into what was starting to look like a rock.

  “Might I suggest speaking with Mistress Althowin Alegarra after acquiring your second shard?” Basolia said.

  “I guess that’s a good idea. It doesn’t really matter yet.”

  He relaxed and listened to Shade and Miya talk about random things. What was most interesting to him was all of Miya’s knowledge and fascination in things she had never spoken about with Owin. She was specifically a fan of an arena fighting sport out in Stobrukha.

  “I do love seeing people get hit,” she said casually.

  “Hm.” Shade leaned far too close to Owin. “I think that is one of those things you hear, then you become concerned about that person’s mental state.”

  “You’re not concerned about your own?” Owin asked.

  Shade sat back. “Well, I think that is the end of that conversation.”

  Basolia walked Miya through a few final steps as she hammered and shaped the object back into a . . . rock.

  “What is it?” Owin asked.

  “A rock.”

  He leaned on the table to get a closer look. She wasn’t lying, and he had no idea how to respond.

  “Why though?” Shade asked after a period of silence.

  “To throw.” Miya picked it up, tossed it in the air, fumbled it, grabbed it again and passed it to Owin. “It’s a weird complicated bomb Althowin wanted me to make. Did I do it right?”

  “Yes,” Basolia said.

  “There you go. If you throw it hard enough, the rock will break and that will release the magic inside. There’s a mana battery in there that will pop with the rest of the rock, but folding it over and over and all that reshaping was to build up the energy inside. I think.”

  “Yes,” Basolia said again.

  “See? I know what I’m doing.”

  “I’ll throw it at something,” Owin said. “Thank you.”

  After finishing the rock, or bomb, or whatever it was, Miya went to sleep, leaving only Shade and Owin. He had expected Basolia to stick around, but the specter vanished somewhere once its work was done.

  They spent the rest of the time getting Owin’s stuff as ready as possible. He did have too many weapons. The knives and the sword were easy choices, but he really didn’t want to leave the Thunderstrike Maul behind. It didn’t feel like he needed four weapons and his wands.

  “Do it anyway,” Shade said.

  “But what about the new sword?”

  “What about it?” Shade picked up the spine. “Is it a good look? Is it intimidating? Am I scary?”

  “It looks like you’re holding your own spine.”

  Shade set the sword on the bed and reached back, grabbing his own spine with both hands. “Like this?”

  “That looks gross and painful.”

  “What if I told you it was both?”

  Owin just stared at the skeleton.

  “Ugh, fine.” Shade let go of his spine and sat on the bed. “Is this better?”

  “Can you use it?”

  “This?” Shade picked up the spine again. “I could try. If it doesn’t work well, we can just stick it in my hole. Sorry, my box.”

  “Okay.”

  Shade narrowed his eye sockets. “I feel like you’re just acting innocent and stupid.”

  “I’m not stupid.”

  “Unaware. I said unaware.”

  Before long, the sun was up, and the compound was busy. Sanem and Raif made breakfast. They even dragged Miya from bed and gave her coffee until she started talking. Owin was ready to sit, talk, and enjoy his time when Althowin appeared and dragged him from his chair and into another room. She sat him down on a wooden chair and crouched right in front of him. Her eyes were narrowed.

  “Hi,” Owin said.

  “Shut up.” She folded her hands. She wasn’t wearing gloves and even her jacket was different. It wasn’t her work coat. It was a dark leather-like material, which looked unnatural on her. “When you arrive in Nagyati, you need to be ready for anything. Magna Regum and the Three Headed Hero Company are working with the Golden Bulls with the intention of killing or capturing you. I don’t know which they intend to do. Maybe both. It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

  Owin stared at her.

  “Does it?”

  “No.”

  “You are not going to fight. Chorsay and Arkasti will be escorting you. Obviously the magus will be there too, but he’s just going to the tower the same as you. What do you know about the Fortress?”

  “Uh, I—”

  “It’s the only tower that has any mobs outside. People are always around training at those little forts. You’ll see a ton of people. It’s not as dangerous as it used to be. But you’re you, so it might still be dangerous. Keep an eye out, and if you see a murderous Shard Hero, what do you do?”

  “Run.”

  Althowin tapped his arm. “Good.”

  “Why aren’t you coming along? They already attacked Vondaire.”

  Althowin smiled. As she showed her teeth, he noticed her slightly longer, sharper teeth. Maybe the kitsune had changed more than he thought. “Fighting Vondaire should have been enough of a warning. I don’t praise people often.” She stood, adjusted her jacket, and opened the door.

  “Was that the end of the sentence?” Owin asked.

  “Hm? Oh. Vondaire is one of the most talented umbras I have ever seen. Don’t tell him.”

  “But he’s gone.”

  “Don’t worry about him. Worry about yourself.” She stepped into the hall and waved for him to follow.

  Owin didn’t move. “I can’t let Chorsay get hurt.”

  “Chorsay is a brute, but he’s smart. You’re far more vulnerable than he is.” Althowin crouched again. “Do you think so little of me? Am I not the smartest, most talented person on the planet? Throw in other compliments if you prefer. I think it’s all pretty clear.”

  “You have a plan?”

  “You will need to trust me at some point, Owin. Have I not done enough?” She tapped her metal fingers against his metal hand. “Hm?”

  “I trust you.”

  “Then shut up, go laugh with your friends for like five minutes, then get ready to leave because you need to get a lot stronger fast.” She stood and stepped back into the hallway.

  “Do you know which ones want to capture me and which ones want to kill me?”

  She stopped. Basolia moved over the floor and climbed Althowin’s leg as a shadow. The specter fully materialized on her shoulder.

  “I don’t know. The Three Headed Hero Company is a whole conclave of overconfident, brash assholes, and Egnatia Lucan is a rich hero raised on nepotism and expensive wine. They all can fuck off and die, but that won’t happen anytime soon. Not without external influences.”

  “Why don’t you kill them if they’re a threat? Why don’t you come with now?”

  Althowin walked back to the doorway and leaned on the frame. “Look, if I went to Stobrukha and murdered the leaders of the Three Headed Hero Company, I would make myself a target. Few people in the world could stop me, but if enough banded together, they might stand a chance. I’m also not an insane murderous idiot who wants to be shunned by everyone. I still live in this world, and if I want to be part of it, I need to be at least somewhat reasonable. Not all the way, but somewhat. My hands are tied.”

  “Metaphorically,” Basolia said.

  “That’s obvious. No matter how strong someone is, they can’t just go around killing people. If a hero kills you, the world will forgive them. It will be easy for some of them to argue that you were a danger or a monster or whatever else they might try to say. But those cocksure heroes don’t know you. Be safe and smart. Once you get your second shard, we’ll talk about fusion and a plan for the future. Got it?”

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  “Good.” Althowin yanked on his metal arm, pulling him off the chair. “Go be friendly.”