Rune Seeker

Hiral turned from his conniving sisters and traitorous doubles to find Seena, Seeyela, and Yanily coming out of Arty’s building, with the merchant at their side. Despite the conflicting emotions of his sisters wanting to go to the surface, he couldn’t deny how good it was to see his friends again.

Seena stood at the front of the group – Li’l Ur at her shoulder, of course – with her flaming mantle falling like a fiery waterfall behind her. Bulky gauntlets covered her hands almost up to her elbows, while a pair of pouches on her waist held the tomes she used as weapons. Armor made of red and green feathers covered the rest of her, and it probably wasn’t his imagination when he saw small bonfires burning in her eyes.

Seeyela, her sister, stood just to her right. In her Armor of the Ghost-Web Matriarch, she cut an imposing figure. Even without the eight-eyed helm on her head – it was currently cradled under one arm – the ivory carapace gave off a dangerous aura. Or, maybe that came from the Fangs of the Lady, the hilts of the two daggers peeking out from behind her hips. Hiral could only shudder when he briefly remembered the horror of being inflicted with the venom those daggers carried – and how close it’d come to killing him. Those daggers weren’t her only weapons – though they were the most dangerous, besides the woman herself – and the handles of Seeyela’s hand-crossbows jutted just above her shoulders, where a cloak of literal blood hung down her back.

Like her sister, Seeyela had a ‘go on, I dare you to argue’ smile on her face.

Putting that aside for the moment, Hiral looked at the third and final member – Yanily.

Hiral’s heart still sang at having his friend back from the dead. Left hadn’t been exaggerating the pain they’d all felt when their friend sacrificed himself to protect them. And yet, there he stood again, almost like nothing had ever happened. He still wore the same hydra-scale armor he’d gotten from one of their first dungeons, but the charred – and somewhat ominous-looking – spear he’d carried before had been lost when he died.

Instead, as part of the reward for completing the Fall of Fallen Reach dungeon, Yanily had been given a Splinter of the Storm. Looking like little more than a crystal needle, the splinter had been part of the Spear of Clouds, the legendary weapon that held back the storm around Fallen Reach. Of course, such a small shard didn’t contain the same power as the original, S-Rank weapon, but the description of it promised it would grow into its own weapon, given time and the right environment.

What did that right environment turn out to be? A crystal spear Hiral had created himself, and into which he’d placed the Splinter. Now, the whole weapon had taken on the same name, with bolts of tiny lightning arcing within the clear weapon, and dark clouds boiling and moving from end to end. It really looked like a bottled storm – though in the shape of a spear.

A B-Rank spear.

Without the Splinter from the dungeon rewards, Hiral was sure he wouldn’t have been able to make anything above C-Rank, even with the materials he’d salvaged. Honestly, the PIMP must’ve been trying to make up for the emotional distress of losing Yanily, as Hiral had felt like his hands had been guided through the process – much like when he got a critical hit – during the forging of the spear. Whatever it was, Hiral was thankful. Not as much as having his friend back, but still thankful.

Behind the three party members, Arty stood with his hands on his hips, looking at Hiral.

“You never visit,” Arty said simply. “Thought you were dead, then I thought we were all going to die with that storm, and this is still only the second time you’ve come by. And it’s only to leave again!”

“Been busy,” Hiral said, though the words sounded hollow even to him. He owed Arty a lot more than the time he’d given him since he’d been back. “You’re right. I’ll come by…”

“After the dungeon,” Seena interrupted.

“Yes, yes, I know,” Arty said with a wavy hand in Seena’s direction. “Dungeon this, dungeon that, it’s all anybody is talking about.”

Hiral looked from Arty to the Medium floating at his shoulder, then back to the man again. If he had one of those, he had to be planning to do dungeon runs himself.

Huh, what is he? D-Rank? C?

Hiral answered his own question with a quick use of View. High-D-Rank huh? Not bad. He must’ve gotten all that experience from doing merchant-things.

Putting his grumbling, merchant friend aside for the moment, Hiral turned his attention on the party leader, ready to argue to the surface and back how much of a bad idea it was to bring his sisters. Ready… until he saw her soft smile, and the slight flush glowing on her cheeks. Ready… until he realized she’d missed him just as much as he’d missed her while he was fixing the towers.

Every single argument he’d been lining up since he’d realized what was going on fled his head in a heartbeat, and all he managed to say was, “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself,” Seena replied, with a small – yet entirely adorable – shuffle of her feet.

Even Li’l Ur rolled his eyes at the uncharacteristically shy gesture, and he didn’t even have eyes.

Still, Hiral only noticed that because of his absurdly high Atn, with most of his attention focused on Seena.

“How’ve you been?” Hiral asked.

“Busy, you know,” Seena said. “Helping train people how to use Cycling, explaining dungeons and the surface… you?”

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“Towers,” Hiral said with a shrug. “It’s been…”

“Oh, come on!” Arty interrupted. “What are you, teenagers? I thought there was some big rush to get down to the dungeon. Some big rush to prevent my valued employee – and I thought friend – from having lunch with me to tell me all about how he’s been.

“And…” Arty’s voice got quieter while he looked down to the side and crossed his arms. “And… to let me explain a few things.”

Ah. He wants to talk about the glyph of fertility he gave mom. He’s probably been blaming himself as much as anybody for me not being able to become a Shaper.

“I don’t blame you,” Hiral said, tearing his eyes away from Seena to look at Arty. The man really was more than just a boss. He’d supported Hiral through most of his life – though Hiral had only figured out why recently. Even though that support had started through guilt, Hiral didn’t believe for a moment it was the only reason as the years had passed. They’d become good friends.

“Blame him for what?” Yanily asked Seeyela quietly.

“Read the room and don’t talk,” Seeyela whispered out of the side of her mouth.

“You should,” Arty said. “If I’d been more careful…”

“I never would’ve met any of these Growers,” Hiral said. “Wouldn’t have Left and Right. Wouldn’t have gone to the surface or come back up from it strong enough to help save the island. In a way, Arty, you saved Fallen Reach by that choice you made before I was even born.”

Arty had to open his mouth and close it a few times before words finally came out. When they did, the older man’s voice cracked, and it was obvious he was holding back his emotions at not getting blamed. “It was… so hard for you.”

“It was,” Hiral admitted. Arty had seen him at his worst after the ten failed Shaper tests, and plenty of times in between. Bullied, ridiculed, ignored, Hiral had gone through it all. And Arty had always been a shoulder to lean on. “But it’s not anymore.”

Hiral lifted his black-clad hand up in front of him, and clenched his fingers into a fist, while a Rune of Impact flared in front of it. “I’m happy where I am now. Happy who I am now. So, you don’t have to worry about what happened before. I know I don’t.

“I’m not the Everfail anymore.”

Ignoring the others – and completely failing to hold back his tears – Arty walked up to Hiral and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. “You’ve no idea how long I’ve been waiting – hoping – to hear you say those words. Good for you.”

Hiral returned the hug, holding his good friend, when four more sets of arms joined in. Left, Right, Nat, and Milly had either been with him – or remembered – all the years it’d been so tough. They stayed like that for just a moment, before Arty mumbled something about suffocating, and extricated himself from the group.

“Come see me when you’ve got time,” Arty said gruffly. “No rush. Just, it’ll be good to talk.”

“It will,” Hiral agreed. Then the merchant coughed a few times like he hadn’t just been crying like a little kid, and strode back towards his office.

“He’s a good guy,” Right said.

“He is,” Hiral agreed, letting himself take a breath to get past the wild ride of emotions from the last two minutes. With his mind settled, he stepped back and put his arms over each of his sisters’ shoulders. “So,” he said to Seena, “what’s this all about?”

“Well,” Seena said while Li’l Ur seemed to be wiping the tears from beneath her eyes with a tiny cloth.

“There, there, Mistress,” the floating, little lich cooed.

“We need somebody E-Rank to come with us to the D-Rank dungeon so we can get the achievements,” Seena explained. “And, being a lower rank, Nat and Milly will also get an achievement for clearing a higher-rank dungeon. It’s win-win.”

“It’s a dungeon,” Hiral said. “It’s dangerous. Even more so since they’re a rank below. Rank disparity alone could make almost any damage they take lethal.”

“So, what, you don’t want us to run dungeons?” Nat asked. Her tone had the familiar – yet terrifying – pitch she used when her question was a trap.

“That’s not what I said.”

“Sounds like exactly what you said,” Milly joined in, and Hiral really regretted choosing to stand between them.

“You haven’t been down there,” he said. “You don’t know what it’s like. How you can…”

“Get tons of experience and loot,” Yanily interrupted. “Not to mention the achievements that make you really strong.”

“Not helping, Yan,” Hiral said.

“Actually,” Seena said, “I think he’s helping more than you’re letting yourself realize. No, let me finish. I know you just want to protect your little sisters, but they are going to run dungeons eventually. Everybody is. And, really, Hiral, what’s better than running their first dungeon while you’re there to physically protect them?”

“Yeah, if you’re as strong as everybody is saying,” Nat piped up. “It shouldn’t be hard for you, right? You can show us the ropes, so we don’t make stupid mistakes when you’re not around.”

Hiral looked down at his little sister on his right. “You two don’t make stupid mistakes. You’re both way too smart for that, and it’s not what I’m worried about. Even without mistakes – even when you’re strong – bad things happen.”

“Bad things happen when you’re weak, too,” Milly said. “I couldn’t do anything when those Shapers came to catch me and mom. Then there were the clouds, and we could feel the solar energy from the fight you were having with the Fallen. And what could we do then?

“Nothing.”

“We don’t want to sit back and have somebody else save us,” Nat said. “Sure, bad things happen even if you’re strong, but at least then you have the power to try and stop it.”

Hiral inwardly groaned at the sound argument. He really hadn’t lied when he’d said the two sisters were smart.

“We don’t have a healer,” Hiral pointed out.

“I’m a healer!” Milly immediately told him.

“Wait, what?”

In answer, Milly untangled herself from his arm, then reached up and physically grabbed her Medium to show him. She probably could’ve just willed it over, but the excitement was clear on her face.

“You know I was going to be a doctor-type Artist after I graduated,” Milly said, face beaming. “So, I got Mom and Dad to put those kinds of tattoos on my Medium.”

“Let me see that,” Hiral said, taking the head-sized, crystal sphere in hand to look at what his parents had inked.

“If what she told us is true,” Seena said. “She’s going to grow into an amazing party healer.”

“What? Why do you have this?” Hiral practically exploded, finger jabbing into the mark on the sphere. “The Fool! Why do you have the Fool tattoo?”