After healing Pyro, Maximillian leans him against the cavern wall. Things are a bit crowded, but it’s still manageable. Slowly, I put on my headphones, checking my phone’s battery. Twenty percent. I frown, but still click play on the music, feeling the way the world tunes out.

  I close my eyes, just for a little while, enjoying the blissful nothingness. Time passes, slowly but steadily ticking forward. By now, Sylves’ blood has dried out a little, going from crimson liquid to a sticky goop on the floor. It smells like iron.

  Most likely, it’ll attract monsters pretty soon, but I don’t mention that to anyone. None of my business, after all. Instead, I focus on the mana inside my vessel. It feels large. Crossing the fifty point mark feels significant, in the way that humans enjoy their little milestones.

  The mana core that Maximillian gave me still has some more mana inside it. I draw it out, leaving the core empty. I try to push mana in again, and it feels a little like making water go through a filter. It works, but it takes a while. Some of it also seems to dissipate.

  I hum to myself, experimenting a little more with the little blue rock I've been given. Why do I feel like calling it a mana core? Couldn’t it just as well be a mana crystal or a mana stone? Curious, how curious.

  A bit more of my mana drops into it. My vessel feels lighter when it’s not full. Isn’t that strange? If I’m full on mana, my body almost feels charged. Under pressure. It’s a bizarre sensation, but hopefully I won’t feel it too often. I should just keep using my mana if it’s full, after all.

  More time passes. A few more people come through with injuries, but none are life-threatening. Some people don’t come through at all, it seems, given the expressions of the parties. Bay still isn’t here. Thatch grows more nervous, but Inu pats his shoulder.

  Someone crawls through the arch, but bleeds out before his party can even ask me for help.

  Finally, after all the waiting, Bay comes out from the portal. She is entirely unharmed, in fact, she looks stronger than ever. Her exoskeleton has gone up from her arm, wrapping around her shoulder, the side of her neck, and placing a lens in front of one of her eyes. She looks terrifying.

  Thatch wraps her in a hug. She pats his back with the hand that’s not wrapped in metal and wiring, squeezing him back. “I’m okay,” she assures him. “My challenge gave me twenty-four hours to disassemble a bit of tech. I grafted some bits onto me. The only danger was it blowing up in my face. It was just time consuming.”

  My friend breathes a few sighs of relief. Slowly, he lets his mom go again, smiling ear to ear. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  She nods. “Yeah.” Her eyes sweep over our group. “Looks like I’m the last to make it,” she notes.

  I nod. Another person comes through the arch. He’s blonde, tall, and wears a bloodstained shirt. There’s a gun and a sword at his hip. I recognize him. He’s the guy that asked us to join his group. Where’s that group, now?

  His eyes lock with mine, and he smiles wider. He takes a step towards me. I ignore him. Another step towards me. I can smell him. Machine oil and iron. I ignore him some more. Then he stands right in front of me.

  “Hey there doll, I know you,” he says. “Dang, your face! What happened?”

  I don’t look up from my phone. I’m wearing my headphones. Surely he won’t be ignorant enough to-

  He reaches out to pull my headphones off.

  Some fucking people.

  I kick out at his shin, and he hops back. “Oh! So you can see me,” he says with a laugh. “How’re you? You look hurt! Glad to see you made it here.”

  Can’t he go away?

  Despite my clear disinterest, the fact that I’m wearing headphones, and am pointedly not looking at him, he chatters on. I turn up my music, making it loud enough to the point where he’d hear it. Hopefully that communicates things.

  Again, he reaches for my headphones. This time, though, Inu steps between us. She speaks, and I don’t hear it through the noise cancelling, but that’s okay. I can imagine it’s something like “Snow doesn’t wanna talk to you, stupid motherfucker. Disgustingly handsome bitch. Piss off you social whore. Close your dumbass mouth.”

  Yep. That sounds just like her.

  The man smiles lazily in reply, crossing his arms behind his head. He says something to Inu, and they talk back and forth a bit. I just wait. Well, not just. I also slowly scoot away from the guy, trying to get to the point where I don’t smell the iron and oil. But it seems pointless. Ugh.

  Soon enough, though, the arch glows again. No one exits it, though. Except, something does. My shadow friend, quickly slithering across the dark floor, before settling into the darkness beneath me, then slowly starts nibbling at the blood Sylves already spilled.

  Recycling, right? I eye it a little warily, whispering. “Buddy, you’re gonna have to promise me not to actually eat any part of my friend that’s attached to her.”

  The blob hesitates for a moment, then I feel a slight twinge of affirmation, and it continues the grim work. I need to name it, really. For another long moment, I watch it eat up the dried blood. “Kuro,” I whisper.

  My little companion shivers for a moment, turning to me. There’s another thin pulse of affirmation. Kuro.

  [The Creeping Darkness watches.]

  Weirdo.

  Then I look at blondie. The handsome prick is still talking to Inu. I hope he dies in a fire.

  Suddenly, both of them stop talking. They turn to look into the same direction. The cave is still dark. I sigh, slowly, then stand up. It was only a matter of time, really. Blood was spilled. Of course, there are things in the cave that smelled it.