The scream was louder the second time, it sounded out with only a few seconds of rest between it and the first. It wasn’t just a shout of pain, it was a shout of fear, a shout that said ‘I’m about to die a very horrible death and I’d appreciate it if anyone capable of helping would come over here and prevent that from happening.’ I’ve never been all that receptive to shouts such as these, I’ve heard plenty of them. Reiav was more panicked than Fora was, but she was Reiav, if she didn’t freak out about useless things then we’d have to check her for bodysnatchers.

  “Alright, talk later,” Pleseln said without a moment's hesitation, despite her earlier words, she did completely forget about what I’d said. “Sword time!!!” She ran off in the direction of the shout, not even hesitating as she drew her weapon. There wasn’t a hint of fear in her voice, in fact, she seemed to almost be looking forward to it.

  Eloi simply whimpered and put his hands on the top of his head, “No no no… there’s another one?!” He then proceeded to hyperventalate. In this and most cases, Eloi won the prize for the best at panicking.

  Reiav got up, wincing at the three long gashes in her leg. She might be able to walk but it was probably a bad idea to try. Fora clicked her tongue at the wound after smacking Eloi in a vein attempt to make him stop hyperventilating. Reiav gave her a slightly scandalized look at the impact, but Eloi didn’t seem to notice. “I’ll have you know I’m terrible at healing magic, next time just put me in the way of any murder attempts, I promise that’s the best decision.”

  This group was more than a little screwed if Fora was the only one with any medical expertise. Reiav gave her a dubious look, because by her estimate, the kid was doing remarkably well in this area.

  Eloi was staring in the direction Pleseln had left with a lost look—he stopped hyperventilating on his own. Which was good, that meant Fora couldn’t hit him again—but he quickly shook his head once Reiav painfully clambered on top of a wing she’d summoned to float on; it was much slower than flight or even walking, but Reiav doubted she could handle the jarring at the moment. After that, the three of them moved as quickly as can be expected.

  By the time they caught up to Pleseln the person, she was surrounded by no fewer than six corpses of those spider demons, and kneeling beside a wounded man. Reiav vaguely recognized him as one of Ruirel’s friends, though he was… ah bleeding from his face to put it mildly, so it took her a moment to notice the resemblance. She gasped, tearing some fabric from her skirts and rushing forward beside Fora, who hadn’t stopped until she was kneeling beside the bleeding man.

  “Sparks, it almost looks like you were trying to get eaten.” She shook her head and pressed her hand on the top of his head, the spot without bleeding. She spoke something in a language that Reiav didn’t recognise; it was too soft for what most of the larborak spoke, and it was too rhythmic for what the suiki spoke. It reminded her a bit of what some of the various tribes of niortak spoke, but she couldn’t hear enough of it to glean any sort of meaning.

  Reiav blinked as, regardless of what the incantation meant, Fora’s hand began to glow slightly golden. A moment passed and she repeated the phrase, the golden glow intensifying—Reiav didn’t catch any more of the phrase the second time. Fora left her hand there for a moment before pulling it away to reveal that the wound had stopped bleeding. Pink skin had grown over it, looking tender and weak.

  And one of his eyes was completely gone.

  Fora wiped off what had been a wound with a piece of the cloth Reiav had given her and then wrapped the man’s face with the rest of it.

  “The skin is back, I warded off any infection they might have given you, but the deeper wounds are still there, I think their claws may have scraped your skull, which can’t have been pleasant.”

  The man slowly and painfully opened his remaining eye, staring at Fora like she was some kind of deity welcoming him into the afterlife—which happens to me a lot actually. “T-thank you.” He rasped. He felt at the bandage, “What’s going on?”

  “We were all sucked into the dream realm.” Pleseln helpfully supplied, sheathing her sword. “This isn’t the real city. At least, that’s what Fora says.” She gestured at Fora, who stuck her tongue out for… some reason.

  The man’s gaze moved back to Fora, “A suiki?”

  Fora shook her head, but didn’t explain, “Do you see five fingers here?!” She held up her hands, which didn’t really prove anything since Reiav hadn’t ever heard from anyone how many fingers suiki had.

  He blinked slowly at her hands, probably slightly delirious from bloodloss, “I uh… there’s only four?” He frowned at her for a moment longer, his brow furrowing. “Yes, there’s definitely only four, I think I’m… fine.”

  Fora nodded sharply, as if that proved her point, “I’m Fora, that’s Reiav, Pleseln, and Eloi.”

  The man inclined his head slowly, wincing at the action, “I’m Tosono, I was… supposed to look after that suiki we brought here.”

  Fora blinked, “Who, Keshel?” She glanced at a nearby door and looking down. Down. Down. “And he went down… there, right?”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Yes, one of the metalfolk took him. How did you know?”

  Fora didn’t answer, she glanced back at Reiav for some reason, “Alright, so we’re going that way, right? I’m ninety percent sure that Keshel is right next to the center of the distortion.”

  “How do you…” She trailed off, deciding that the answer was probably more confusing than the lack of an answer. Reiav sighed, “Well, let’s go then.”

  Tosono peered down the dark shaft as the others argued about something. He kept turning his head to the left, the new blindspot was not helping his mental state.

  Anything could come out of there and attack him, he wouldn’t be able to see betrayals coming nearly as well. He wouldn’t even be able to spot things as easily; Tosono always prided himself in his observational skills but falling stars, he was going to be absolutely useless like this!

  He shuddered slightly and turned toward the others, belatedly realizing that they were arguing about something. Again. He was honestly surprised they’d all managed to stick together long enough to find himself. They’d been sitting here for an hour at this point, some arguing they should do one thing and others convinced that another option was vastly superior.

  Most of them seemed to have agreed that going down the ladder was the best choice. All save for Eloi, Tosono felt like the older man was being disregarded by now.

  “I should probably go first, so if anything attacks us I’ll get hit.” Fora decided. The strange child wasn’t anything like Tosono would have expected from her looks. She was mature, except she had a strange tendency to spout nonsense.

  Reiav didn’t seem to like it, but Eloi and Tosono both nodded, which left Pleseln… the most vocal of dissenters in practically every aspect. “Why can’t I be in front? I’m sure I can kill any of those spider demons we run into.”

  Fora sighed, apparently annoyed, “My exoskeleton is stronger than your skin.” Tosono examined her, getting the feeling that there was something more to the words she was leaving out. He turned his head sharply as he saw movement from his left side, but it was Eloi, he was pacing.

  Eventually Pleseln conceded, and Fora started down the ladder without hesitation. Tosono frowned at her again, he was hard pressed to find anyone—regardless of age—who wouldn’t hesitate to descend first into dark depths that were sure to house demons. Even Pleseln, who peered down into the pit after the kid, hesitated. It wasn’t for long, and it didn’t add much time, but she still paused.

  Tosono shook his head and approached next. He resolved to not let his lesser vision get in the way. He glanced back at Reiav, who Fora had done healing on as well. Such a strange ability… it just added to the odd things about the kid. Reiav couldn’t walk well yet—the healing only did surface things, which Tosono knew all to well. His head still pounded like it was being bashed between two rocks.

  He glanced back at the pit and descended, Reiav floating down on a spectral wing behind him. She was strong if she could keep a wing up long enough for it to be useful like that.

  “Come on,” Fora’s voice came from below. “It’s sparking creepy down here without any color, you should see it!”

  That didn’t particularly help, but Tosono figured it told them that she was still alive, and still Fora. He felt his feet touch the ground soon afterward. Tosono glanced around, deciding that yes, there wasn’t anything waiting to kill them down here, not that he’d expected Fora to just sit back and watch if something tried to kill her.

  Eloi—who was last in line—touched the ground. Fora grinned at him, probably about to say something stupid, but she stopped in her tracks, eyes widening. It took a moment longer for Tosono to feel it, but once he did he was fighting it with all his… mind.

  All he could conceive to feel was disorientation as an unfamiliar memory was unceremoniously shoved at him. he fought against it, but a voice spoke to his mind. ~Listen, please, please listen, feel my pain.~

  She quickly grabbed the other end of a crate as a boy around her own age struggled with it. He glared at her, but well, he’d looked like he needed assistance. Was she supposed to just let him fall over and break something?

  She smiled at him; smiling usually helped in these cases, but he didn’t seem to get the memo. Instead, he begrudgingly worked with her as the two of them moved the crate into a place where someone could check to see if the contents were alright.

  “I don’t need help, you know.”

  She nodded, “Yeah I know, I just needed to do something; there are so many people here trying to fix the collapse that I can’t even find a place to help! Can you believe that?”

  The boy looked at her incredulously.

  She brightened, “Anyway, I’m Teisel, I do odd jobs, what’s your name?”

  The boy simply rolled his eyes and walked past her, leaving her to gape at his back. That was like… how people had treated Teisel’s mother back before she’d died. Stars above, that poor boy. What if Teisel had been one of the undercover operatives? Wasn’t he concerned about that possibility?

  Maybe he’s one of the undercover operatives. Her mind whispered the idea, which just made her more worried. She wasn’t worth being spied upon, was she? She was just a lower class Alanerea. The only thing that made her special was that Druin Afervest, the general of warfare, had looked at her yesterday. For about three seconds. She was still reeling from that.

  Either way, the idea about this boy made no sense, so Teisel smacked it down. He was too young, and his antennae weren’t nearly as impressive as they would have been. He would say the same about you, there’s no way he would worry about you being an operative. You’re too weak, too young, too…

  She let the thought trail off. It was wrong, so there was no reason to think about it so hard.

  She still snorted disdainfully, deciding that he was just a stupid kid. He only looked a year or two older than herself! Somehow though, he heard her snort. The boy looked back at her with a glare and finally stomped off.

  Teisel glared in return at his retreating figure and went back to help with the cleanup. The life of a bottom level alanerea was never glamorous, but she expected people to at least be courteous!

  But why should he be courteous to you? You aren’t anyone special.