Soren cleared his throat, reminding Rylan that he was still physically covering the older boy. He quickly rolled off onto his backpack and sprang to his feet.

  Meanwhile, Tamina replaced the shield on her back and yanked her sword from the armadon’s still lightly smouldering mouth. Producing a rag from somewhere, she started cleaning her blade.

  “Thanks for the save, Thar Tamina,” Rylan said earnestly, only in part to fill the awkward silence.

  He and Soren had been arguing when the armadon showed up, and he wasn’t entirely sure where they stood after everything that had just happened.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied calmly, before turning her piercing green eyes to him with a somewhat wry expression. “You do realise Soren was about to do what I just did, before you tackled him out of the way, right?”

  “Oh...” Rylan reluctantly turned back to the young Thistlethorn. “Were you?”

  Soren scratched his neck. “Well, something like it. Even if its flames had hit me dead-on, my Mana Shell should have held for a bit. Long enough for me to strike a good blow and get out of the way, probably.”

  “Ah. Ehm, how strong are your Mana Shells, exactly, if I might ask?”

  To Rylan’s slight surprise, Soren didn’t hold back in telling him.

  “Mine is Tier 5, meaning it holds at most 5 points of mana. I’m guessing Tamina can’t answer that question, but I get the feeling hers is a bit stronger, though I doubt she’s quite hit Tier 10 yet—the cap for Emerald Grade Quinthar. But regardless, I, you know... appreciate what you were trying to do.”

  Rylan found his head bobbing up and down of its own volition. “Sure. You would’ve done the same for me.”

  Soren looked at him far too seriously. “I would have.”

  The armadon had stopped twitching, so Rylan tried to escape the awkwardness by crouching down next to its mouth and gingerly reaching in to remove his paring knife. The blade was lodged firmly in the creature’s palate, and its handle was slippery with blood, but with some wiggling, he managed to pull it free.

  Tamina offered him her rag, which he gratefully accepted.

  “You, ehm, you did well,” she said as he cleaned his knife. “Did you intend to do that? Throw into its mouth, I mean?”

  “Ah, yes. I did.”

  “Smart,” she said with a nod, before gesturing at the pile of glowing Cubes lying in the sand. “You two should divide these amongst yourselves and exchange them for Credits.”

  Rylan blinked. “Don’t you want any?”

  She shook her head.

  “She probably isn’t allowed to offer them to Ethereon without permission,” Soren explained. “In fact, I bet if she picks any up, she’s obliged to keep it until she can hand it over to the Talons.”

  Tamina shot him a cool look, but didn’t contradict him. Rylan was starting to wonder if she was even allowed to comment on his speculation. Most likely the non-disclosure clause Soren mentioned earlier covered the Contract’s terms as well...

  He frowned, turning to her. “Then how do you tier up your Quint Structures?”

  She shot him a weird look. “By Ethereon’s generosity, of course.”

  “We get rewards for gaining ranks in Skills,” Soren explained, apparently still feeling helpful. “100 Quintessence Credits for a rank in a Common Skill, including the first. And they go up to rank 10, so it adds up.”

  At least that answered why Rylan had received 100 Standard Quintessence Credits. But those could only be converted into Cubes at a rate of 10 Credits per Cube, and from what he understood, offering a Cube to Ethereon would only afford him a single Credit.

  Rylan put his clean knife away, and made to reach for a Cube, but then hesitated, thinking of the measly amount of coin in his possession. “Isn’t it kind of a waste to offer these to Ethereon? I mean, it seems like they’re worth quite a bit more like this.”

  Tamina raised a brow at him. “You’re worried about money right now? Seriously?”

  “Hey, I still have a debt to pay, all right?”

  She scoffed. “And I’m supposed to believe you still plan on paying it, after doing all this?”

  Rylan raised his chin. “I don’t know if you’ve been listening, but I’m not the unreasonable party here. I will pay back every last bit, and then I’m done with—”

  “Rylan,” Soren interrupted annoyedly. “Just—forget about the stupid debt for now, all right? We’re stuck down in the cloudsea, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that important anyway.”

  Rylan turned to him, his brows furrowing, and the embers in his stomach flaring to life. “That’s easy for you to say,” he bit out. “You don’t have a clue what it’s like to have that kind of obligation hanging over your head, dictating the course of your life.”

  “You think I don’t have obligations dictating the course of my life?” Soren asked, incredulous. “Are you being serious right now?!”

  “It’s not the same! When it comes down to it, you have the option of telling your family to go f—”

  “Enough!” Tamina yelled once more. “Again, neither the time nor the place. Somebody offer these Cubes to Ethereon so we can move on.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Rylan and Soren maintained eye contact for a moment longer, before Soren finally turned away, his shoulders slumping.

  Rylan took a deep breath and turned away as well, taking a moment to rub his palms into his eyes. “Look, whether my debt is important or not, the Cubes are worth more like this, right? If we need to exchange them for Credits, can’t we just do that later?”

  Tamina let out a sigh. “You don’t know. I should’ve guessed. Look, Cubes attract Malequints. A common strategy for hunts is to bring a bunch of them in a container lined with darkmetal to obscure their presence, and then pull them out as bait. I’m pretty sure I didn’t spot any darkmetal among our supplies, which is why I suggested we offer the Cubes to Ethereon.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  Rylan finally crouched down and picked up one of the Cubes. The glowing, physical Quint deposits were about double the size of similarly shaped dice, and lighter than he’d expected. Actually, it felt less like they had weight, and more like they simply gently resisted being moved. Weird...

  “Just take all of them,” Soren said, his voice tight. “It’s fine.”

  Rylan hesitated for a moment, then picked up a few more, not wanting to start another argument. Credits could always be transferred, like Soren had done before. However, the pile was far too large to fit into his hands. “How do I, ehm...”

  “You don’t have to physically grab them. Just hold your hand over the lot and state your intention to Ethereon,” Tamina replied.

  Rylan dropped the handful he’d grabbed, and held his hand over the pile as instructed. “Blessed Ethereon, please accept my offering of these Cubes.”

  《Quintessence exchange requested,》Ethereon’s voice droned after a few seconds.《Exchanging 38 Cubes for 38 Credits. Do you accept?》

  “Yes.”

  Rylan watched with equal amounts of fascination and heartache as the pile of Cubes crumbled into motes of blue light that dispersed into the air around him, and then flew off.

  “All right, we should get moving,” Tamina said, looking around as she rolled her right shoulder. “Scavengers will show up soon.”

  Rylan took another look at the massive carcass, fingering the handle of Chef Zelim’s prized cleaver. “Shouldn’t we cut some meat off for lunch first?”

  Tamina made a face. “I wouldn’t recommend it. But you can cut out its canines, if you like. The firemetal in its teeth is too difficult to extract, but the sharper ones are worth something to Quinthar archers.”

  Rylan didn’t need to be told twice. He quickly took out his boning knife and got to work.

  “I take it you’ve eaten armadon before then?” Soren asked after a moment, sounding like he was very much making an effort to sound normal.

  “Yes. It’s very tough and stringy. You need to slow-cook it for hours to make it somewhat palatable.”

  “We’ll find something else,” Rylan stated as he started carving through the creature’s thick gums.

  An awkward silence fell as he continued his work. Even in the armadon’s mouth, its flesh was indeed rather tough, but he was making headway.

  Soren cleared his throat. “You know, a worshipper of Singghir might like to wear a tooth like that as a protective charm, or something.”

  Rylan perked up his ears. Tamina had called out the name of the Great Spirit of Fire when she separated them earlier...

  “True followers of Singghir don’t concern themselves with accessories,” Tamina replied calmly. “Only the glory of battle.”

  “I suppose you would know, huh?”

  Tamina shot Soren a look. “Real subtle. If you must know, I’m no die-hard Zenite. However, while I’m not big on spirituality, I’ve had my share of battles, and it can’t hurt to have a Great Spirit on your side.”

  Rylan nodded to himself. His feelings about Zeph were quite similar. He was pretty doubtful whether anything was listening to his lately rather frequent prayers, but it could never hurt to try.

  Finished removing the canines, he stood up. “All right, let’s get going.”

  Soren cocked his head to the side, his brows furrowed. “Ehm, what way were we heading, again?”

  When no one spoke up for several long seconds, Tamina let out a sigh. “Let’s just try to go up.”

  Like Tamina had warned, the reef was a real maze. It made for slow going, especially when they hit a dead-end.

  When the coral they were faced with seemed sturdy enough to hold their weight, they sometimes tried climbing it. When that didn’t work, they had to backtrack to keep moving in the direction they wanted to.

  Not that it was very easy to determine what direction was ‘up’ inside a maze-like reef.

  They talked little as they walked, and it was really only Rylan and Soren interacting with Tamina, never each other. The mood had clearly shifted after Rylan had shoved Soren out of harm’s way—albeit unnecessarily—but there was still a lingering tension between them.

  Rylan wasn’t sure what to think. He didn’t necessarily want to fight with Soren, but he couldn’t forgive his former friend just because they needed to cooperate.

  He was also getting kinda hungry, so instead of thinking about it much more, he occupied himself by keeping an eye out for good eating along the way. He ended up prying loose a variety of large shells that he recognised, containing different kind of shellfish. He also snatched up some young greens sprouting from the sand. Finally, they came across a large crab.

  Rylan immediately pulled out Zelim’s chef’s knife, and charged up his Skill. His spirit protested the action, so he didn’t try to add any additional mana, simply relying on its base power to try and punch through the creature’s exoskeleton.

  It proved enough, and they decided to have lunch there and then.

  Soren was useless in the kitchen as expected, so the young noble was put on heating duty, starting up a broth from the edible parts of the plants Rylan had gathered. Tamina, on the other hand, turned out to know her way around a knife. She helped cut the meat out of the crab’s thick legs and claws while Rylan cleaned and shucked the shellfish with his paring knife.

  Frankly, shucking wasn’t half as terrible out in the cool fog like this as it had been inside the Thistlethorns’ sweltering, crowded kitchen.

  By the time they were done, their little pan was stuffed overfull with delicious white meat, and the smell of its contents was making Rylan salivate constantly.

  They ended up repurposing some of the bigger shells to serve as bowls, and Rylan tore into his own portion like a starved armadon ripping into a carcass.

  Things had gotten a little better when they were cooking, but as they ate, the quiet returned, and the awkwardness with it.

  They cleaned and packed up quickly. Just when Rylan was about to lift up his backpack, however, Soren silently held out a hand. Rylan hesitated for a moment, then handed it over.

  The quiet became a little more bearable after that.

  “It’s getting kinda dark,” Rylan observed softly. It was a bit of an understatement, as both he and Soren had already taken out their glowbands, and he could barely see Tamina scouting up ahead. They’d more or less silently agreed that she was leading them, but Rylan was getting hungry again.

  The crab they’d had for lunch had been pretty massive, and since Soren had taken the backpack, Rylan had elected to carry what remained of its carcass. The meat inside its shell was much darker than the stuff in its legs, and Rylan was mightily interested in the difference in taste.

  “I know, I know,” Tamina called back with a sigh. “I’m trying to find some decent shelter, but... Hold on.”

  Rylan blinked as she seemed to walk into a piece of coral and just... disappeared.

  He exchanged a glance with Soren, and they hurried on over.

  The last thing Rylan had expected to see when he arrived at the spot where Tamina had disappeared, was the empty, gaping frame... of a door.

  Want to read ahead? Check out my !

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  : Unnatural Laws

  : Unusual Enemies

  : Unimagined Adventures

  : Unchained Potential

  : Untamed Spirit

  : Undivided Worlds

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