Rune Seeker

Hiral stared down at the two new runes on the palms of his hands. Well, technically, the two halves of the new rune. Singular. The Rune of Exchange. It had been one hell of a gamble putting off the inspiration for it – and then accepting it when he did – but it had paid off. Thanks to the rune, he’d somehow managed to save Seena from the Unnamed.

And save himself from Seeyela murdering him later if he’d failed.

With the two women in his thoughts, he looked to where they sat at a nearby table with Nivian and Wule. The two parties had just gotten back from their visit to the raid zone entrance, and now had over a hundred hours until they needed to get back. Drahn had already left – both the Hanging Gardens, where Hiral sat now, and the party – to recruit additional people for the zone. Needing E- through A-Rank people meant a lot of people suddenly needed Asylum access as soon as possible.

That left a hole in their party, which was why there were two other people sitting at the table with his friends. A pair of Bonders. Coincidentally, the same two Bonders Nivian’s party had rescued.

While Hiral and the others had raced through the maze-like Siege of the Hanging Gardens and dealt with the beast wave assaulting the Bonders’ fortified wall, Nivian’s party had fought through their own wild dungeon – the Assault on Ascender’s Tower.

Apparently, the Ascender’s Tower was where the Bonder dungeons lay. Each floor housed a different Rank dungeon, with the bottom floor being E-Rank, while the top was S-Rank. And, it hadn’t just been one party Nivian and the others had saved – it’d been ten. Three parties were each running the E-, D-, and C-Rank dungeons, and then there was the single B-Rank group there as well. It was that group that’d been primarily responsible for protecting the other – weaker – groups when the Chimerashad arrived.

It was also that group that’d suffered the worst losses, with three of the six falling while Nivian’s party rushed to their aid. A fourth had died even after the undead made their appearance, but they’d at least managed to save all the weaker parties.

Hiral had asked a bit about it, and unlike the numerous weaker enemies he had battled with his party, the enemies arrayed against Nivian’s party had been much smaller in number, but higher in strength. Luckily, there hadn’t been any Unnamed there. How they were going to deal with those inside the raid zone – if there were any – was still a very big question mark.

“So,” a voice said off to Hiral’s side, pulling him from his thoughts, and he looked over to find Seeyela standing there. She was still practically invisible to his sensory domain, which was more than a little terrifying when he wasn’t sure how she felt about him killing her sister. Sure, Seena had gotten better, but he’d basically tortured the party leader. Then Separated her head into little, tiny cubes. Not a great way to make a good impression on her older – and significantly stabbier – sister. “What tattoos does Left get now that you have those?” she pointed at the runes in his palms.

“None, unfortunately,” Hiral said. “I don’t have any tattoos here.”

“Was your shiny scalp the last empty place then?”

Hiral shook his head and ran his hand across the Rune of Dreaming there. “I actually have tiny tattoos on my earlobes, the Crowd As One– a communication ability – and Perfect Sense, which you can probably take a guess at. Good for scouting and anything requiring attention to detail. There’s also the Spear of Clouds on my back that’s not complete either.”

“Did all your other runes overlap with tattoos?” Seeyela asked, and looked at the bench beside Hiral.

Getting the hint, Hiral shuffled over to the side a bit and gestured for her to sit. After she did, he moved to answering her question. “They did, which is odd about this one. Then again, this rune is already odd.”

“How so?”

“Well, kind of like the Rune of Dreaming on my head.” Hiral pointed to his bald scalp. “It’s actually two halves. These two runes are… more three dimensional than the other ones. You can’t see it, but the lines extend inside my skin, not just across it. And, even though this Rune of Exchange is on both palms – and not touching – the two halves are connected, making it one single rune even though it’s across a distance.”

“Can you use it like that?” she asked.

“Yes,” Hiral said, then pushed solar energy into the rune. There was a slight resistance, but he was able to push past it easily enough, then had to turn his head from looking to his left to looking to his right.

“What?” Seeyela asked, likewise turning from right to left to look at him as she realized she was now sitting where he’d just been. “How did you do that?”

Hiral held up his hands. “Rune of Exchange. The most straightforward use of it is, well, that. Swapping places. Like what I did in that fight before.”

“I barely felt anything. And there wasn’t a prompt like Nivian’s Swarm Tactics… if it’s even still called that for him,” Seeyela trailed off.

“Maybe because it’s a runic application instead of a PIMP-given ability,” Hiral suggested. “Seems like rune-powers are a little hit-and-miss with whether or not they have names or give notifications.”

“And you can use the rune, just like that? You don’t need to clap or anything?”

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“Clap?” Hiral asked, eyebrow up.

“Since the rune is on both hands,” she said, pointing.

“Uh… no. Never thought of that. Like I said, even though you can’t see it, it’s connected. As for just like that, it’s an expensive ability to use. Solar energy, I mean. Even with the efficiency boosts we have, it’s one of my more costly tricks.”

“It didn’t just use gravity to transport us, either,” she said, head tilted back like she was trying to remember the feel of getting exchanged. “It’s different than my portals or Bamf.”

“It is,” Hiral agreed. “I’ve still got to do some more testing with it, and I’d appreciate your input on things. You’re the expert on teleporting after all. If you’re willing, that is.”

Instead of answering, Seeyela leaned forward onto her knees, and looked at where her sister talked with the twins and Bonders. “That’s why I actually came over here,” she said slowly. “Asking about the runes was just me procrastinating.”

“Oh,” Hiral said, though he wasn’t really surprised.

“Hiral,” she said his name evenly after a few seconds of silence. “I have to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me.”

“Of course,” he said, though she still wasn’t looking at him.

“Against the Unnamed, did you know it would work? Did you know your new rune would be able to save Seena?”

“No,” Hiral said quietly.

“Then why did you do that to her?” Seeyela asked, and finally turned to look at him, her face a war of emotions. The anger was impossible to miss in her eyes. But, it was tinged with sadness, guilt, and something else he couldn’t quite place. Hope?

“Because I had to try something,” Hiral said. “If I did nothing, we would’ve lost her. Completely.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“More than anything,” Hiral said. “You didn’t see what it did to her PIM…”

“And you did?” she asked sharply.

“Yes,” Hiral said with a nod. “Only because of the unique connection between the Unnamed and Seena. But, it was foul. The way it corrupted and stole what she was.”

“You think she would’ve been better off dead if your plan didn’t work?”

Hiral hesitated before answering, but finally nodded, and barely whispered, “I do. Even if she survived the process, she would’ve been an empty shell, at best. A monster, at worst.”

“And,” Seeyela started, her teeth clenching for a second before she continued. “And what makes you think you have the right to decide that for her? Because she has a crush on you?”

“I don’t think…” Hiral started.

“I’m her sister!” Seeyela hissed. “I should be the one who decides…”

“Yes, you should,” Hiral shot right back. “But you couldn’t. So, I did. I’m sorry for what I did to Seena. I really am. Every time I close my eyes, I see that thing wearing Seena’s shape. And I see myself hurting it. Knowing Seena is feeling everything I do, because I could see it through her PIM, but also knowing I couldn’t stop. Not if I wanted to ever see the real her again.

“In the time we had, that was the best I could do.”

Seeyela’s hands clenched into fists on her knees as she locked eyes with Hiral, but he wasn’t going to back down on this. If this was going to be an issue between them, it needed to get settled now. Not when they were neck-deep in a dungeon or the raid zone. If she couldn’t trust him because of what he’d done…

The woman twisted and lunged at him so quickly, Hiral’s eyes widened, but he didn’t try to dodge. He didn’t move a muscle until after her arms wrapped around his neck, and she buried her head in his shoulder. Then, as the first sob wracked her back, he reached around and pulled her into a hug.

“Thank you for saving my little sister,” Seeyela said. “When I couldn’t.”

It… wasn’t him she was angry at. It was herself. Again. Just like with Picoli and Balyo. While the woman was an absolute terror in a fight, her friends – and her sister – were her biggest weakness.

“It’s okay,” Hiral said quietly. “I was lucky I had something that could help.”

Seeyela gave him another squeeze before pushing herself back to a seated position. Wiping away tears with the back of her hand, she shook her head. “It’s not just that. Not just your rune. I know you would’ve found some other way if you’d needed to. You would’ve made it work.”

“I don’t know about that,” Hiral said. “I had another idea or two, but…”

“You would have saved her,” Seeyela said, iron in her voice. “Like you saved Yan. Don’t give me that look. I know the PIMP was involved there too, but he wouldn’t be back with us if you hadn’t done something. And I also know you’d do the same thing for any of us. Every time.”

“Of course I would,” Hiral said.

The woman reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I got angry at you out in the field. You were… hurt. Badly. And all I could do was think about what you’d done to Seena. I should’ve helped you instead of almost…”

Hiral shook his head. “You didn’t.”

“I thought about it.”

“You did a little more than think about it, if I remember correctly.”

“Didn’t I just say you were hurt badly? Obviously, your recollection of events is a bit jumbled. I thought about it. Don’t make me think about it again.”

Hiral smiled despite the threat. If she could talk like that, then she really wasn’t blaming him.

“You’re probably right,” Hiral said.

“Usually am,” Seeyela said, then looked over again towards Seena. “Usually. And, it’s a relief to know you’ll be there for the rare times I’m not.”

“Are we good, Seeyela?” Hiral asked, just to make sure. “Are you?”

“I need to figure my shit out,” Seeyela admitted with a shake of her head. “But us? We’re good, I hope.”

“We are,” Hiral said. “I’m… sorry I didn’t tell you what I was going to do.”

“I would’ve stopped you.”

“Tried to,” Hiral said with a wink.

“Ugh, not you too now!” Seeyela groaned and leaned back.

Hiral winced. “Sorry. I think it’s contagious.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she said, then leaned in and gave him one more hug. After a few seconds, she pulled away with a sigh. “None of this is even why I came over to talk to you.”

“Oh? I’m glad we did talk about it though,” Hiral said.

“Me too,” Seeyela agreed. “No, it’s about the Bonder dungeon. The Ascender’s Tower. Nivian and Seena are in agreement we should go clear as many floors as we can for experience, achievements, and loot before we move to the raid zone.”

“Makes sense,” Hiral said. “Seena mentioned something like that to me when we were at the raid zone.”

“Before you exploded?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, well, maybe what she didn’t mention was that one of the Bonders Nivian rescued is a tank. A B-Rank tank, at that.”

“Oooooh,” Hiral said, clearly seeing where this was going.

“Exactly,” Seeyela said. “The other one was a damage dealer, so they’re going to join Nivian’s party.”

“Is Burs okay with that?” Hiral asked. “Are those two Bonders okay with it? They just lost their whole party…”

“Burs was the one who suggested it,” Seeyela said. “As for them, well, it sounds like they saw how strong Nivian and his party were. They want to be like that so they can protect the Hanging Gardens. They’re turning the loss into motivation. Kind of like what we did,” she added quietly.

“It’s not that easy,” Hiral said.

“No, it’s not,” Seeyela agreed. “And, they don’t have their friends around to support them as they work through it. It’s going to be hard.”

Hiral nodded. “If one of them is really joining us, we’ll do what we can.”

“Yeah,” Seeyela said, then patted Hiral on the knee. “On that note, Mr. Raid Leader, let’s go introduce you to our new tank, and his companion.”