Greg turned his key and smiled slightly as the lock gave. There had been a slight concern that Maeve would have changed them, but instead he pushed the apartment door open to find an all too familiar situation.

  Two large couches dominated the pentagonal room, facing each other with a short table almost as long as they were between. Anything able to be disassembled had been. Parts for various machines covered the floor between and around the couches, on top of the table, culminating in a path to the kitchen where a grease covered ginger stood on the center island. Her eyes went wide as she saw him, a manic, awkward grin breaking up her oil dotted cheeks.

  “You uhh…” He stepped forward and toed what looked like an old carburetor with his boot. “You lose your keys again?”

  She blinked several times. The grin dropped from her face, leaving only wide eyes he couldn’t quite distinguish between fear or amazement. When the wrench slipped from between her fingers, tears started to fall, and he moved slowly toward her.

  “I’m sorry, it was just a joke I know you do this when you’re..”

  Maeve leapt off the island counter, crashing into him and sending them both falling into the pile of junk behind the couch. Her grip around his torso left him questioning for a moment whether he was being embraced or attacked until hot tears soaked into his shirt as she sobbed.

  It was not the most physically comforting hug he’d ever experienced, but it did more to heal his soul that he could ever imagine. She must have seen him at his absolute worst, yet she was clinging to him like she’d been afraid she’d lost him forever.

  He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.

  After the crying stopped, the violence started. She slugged him hard in the chest. The first time hurt, but he’d deserved it. The next several were completely uncalled for.

  “Owe, owe, owe.” He squirmed out from under her and ran around behind the other couch. “Knock it off, that hurts.”

  “You think that hurt?! You stupid ass…” She picked up the closest part and hurled it across the room at him.

  Greg was not good with engines, or tools, or really anything to do with putting stuff like this together, so when she finally stopped assaulting him, he set to do whatever task she needed to get the apartment back in order. It was mostly just him sifting through a sea of machinery looking for one specific part, but after several hours they’d gotten everything put back together, cleaned the place up, and were back on the couches with a well-earned cocktail in hand.

  “You really scared me…you know.” She stared down into her drink as she swirled it around. “You had big freaky light wings coming off your back…cracks in your skin.”

  Greg gave her a sad smile. “I’m so…”

  She held up a hand to silence him. “Friends don’t apologize to Grimjaws. I’m just glad you’re okay.” She said, putting her boots up on the table. “I heard the other guy survived too.”

  “Sort of.” Greg nodded. “They apparently revived him. A magic thing, I guess?”

  Maeve nodded. “Powerful healers can do it, really rare though.” She sipped at her drink before asking, “Why were you guys fighting?”

  Greg gave a short, exasperated laugh. “I can’t stop insulting Horatio Rillon. He wanted me to grovel at his feet or something, and when I wouldn’t, he sicked his goons on me.”

  “And you ended up in the industrial ring fighting one of them?” She asked. Greg told the rest of the tale from his perspective, being chased through the docks, Miles taking whatever substance gave him the same frost kissed mist, then showing up in the courtyard. “Wow. You said your magic helper interface thing said he was stronger than you? Did you get anything for…”

  “Killing him?”

  “Yeah…” Maeve said, shrinking slightly in her seat.

  “I honestly don’t know. It’s been a little hectic since I woke up, haven’t really checked.”

  “You did.” Isabella had been surprisingly quiet while he treaded through all the personal issues, but he wasn’t na?ve enough to believe she wasn’t going to tear into him at some point. For now, she pulled up a series of windows that she must have stopped from coming up so he could focus on the fight.

  New Quest!

  Fight or Flight

  Escape your pursuer or turn and fight.

  The choice is yours.

  Reward

  100x silver obols

  1000 experience

  Which was followed by the quest completed box. “Some obols and some experience looks like.” He started to speak again, but Isabella pulled up the next box.

  Auto-loot interrupted

  Items deposited before interruption:

  10x gold obols

  Axe of the Onyx Throne

  Greg’s face scrunched up. That wasn’t right. He pulled up his character sheet quickly, scrolled through his abilities and expanded auto-loot.

  Auto-loot (Passive)

  Level 1: 89 of 100

  Are corpses burning from the inside out before you can loot them? Not anymore!

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  This passive ability automatically harvests any monster kill or container, putting relevant and/or expensive loot automatically into your storage space. Humanoids killed by your hands must be looted manually. You did the deed, you rifle through their pockets!

  “Greg? You okay?” Maeve tilted her head, almost losing her balance in the process.

  “Hmm?” He glanced up at her, face still bunched. “Yeah, sorry. Something happened that shouldn’t have been possible.” He read over the ability again just to confirm it only worked on monsters and containers. Suppressing the urge to ask Isabella, he looked back up at Maeve.

  “What happened?”

  “One of my abilities lets me automatically loot monsters I kill and containers.” He reached up into his inventory space and pulled the massive axe from it. The moment it fully cleared the extradimensional space, gravity took over, and the impossibly heavy axe slipped from his grip, imbedding itself into the floor behind the couch. “Fuck.”

  “Holy shit, you stole his axe?!” Maeve jumped up, stumbling around the couch to grab the axe and rip it out of the wood floor in one hand. She sipped her drink with the other as she examined the axe that was a foot taller than she was.

  “How did you…” He frowned, feeling sudden strength envy. He shook it off. “Yeah, that’s the problem. I didn’t steal it. I looted it, like he was a…” Well, that was a sobering thought. He hadn’t had the auto-loot ability when he killed the frost kissed on that first night here. Did taking the drug change their bodies to the point his interface recognized it as a monster?

  “This thing is sweet.” She spun the axe, examining the double blades in the shape of black dragon wings. “Doesn’t seem like a ‘Greg weapon’ though.”

  “I can’t even hold the thing up so…” Greg shrugged, lifting his eyebrows slightly.

  “What are you gonna do with it?”

  “I don’t know. Why? You want it?” he asked.

  “Me?” Her cheeks went red, and she took a long drink from her glass, eyes not leaving the axe. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly...”

  Greg rolled his eyes and waived a hand at her. “Just put it down for a second, let me make sure it doesn’t have anything weird going on with it.”

  “Okay?” Maeve gave him a strange look, but sat it down on the ground.

  Scanning…

  Axe of the Onyx Throne

  Forged from the bones of K’litcheni the Rancid, this great axe wields the destructive power of the black dragon. Those without sufficient strength will be unable to wield it, but should you prove yourself worthy, power will be yours.

  Minimum Strength to wield 25

  Increase Strength by ten percent

  Counts as a siege weapon

  Landing a strike against flesh, stone, or metal coats the struck area in acid dealing damage over time

  If your strength exceeds 100 unlocks ability On Broken wings

  On Broken wings

  Once per day, you may create a whirlwind with Axe of the Onyx Throne on which you may fly for up to half an hour per 100 strength you have.

  “And I get a jacket that levels up with me. Cool. Cool. Cool.” He rolled his eyes and flung his hand in the direction of the axe. “When it hits thing it pukes acid at them, makes you stronger, and when you get strong enough you can fly.”

  Maeve flinched, looked down at her drink, then back at him. “I’m sorry, did you say fly?”

  ###

  “You’ve been very quiet.” Greg whispered as he left Maeve for the night to head to bed. “I get it, you’re pissed at me. We’re kinda stuck with each other though, so we should probably talk it out.” He pulled off his shirt, catching sight of the dinner plate sized bruise in the center of his chest in the bathroom mirror and wincing.

  “I find its best when I’m angry to ruminate for a while so that I don’t take out my frustrations on those around me.” Isabella spoke matter-of-factly. “When I could fly, shoot fireballs, and conjure magical whips, this was an especially important skill.”

  “That’s understandable.” He turned on the shower and looked at himself in the mirror, pushing the shaggy dark brown hair back off his face. “Are you ready to talk, or do you need more time?” He asked, looking at himself like he was speaking to another person.

  She was silent for a moment before clearing her nonexistant throat. “I believe I understand your motivation for not listening to me during the fight, but I would like to hear it from you.”

  Greg nodded to himself in the mirror. “I thought if I didn’t wait until the absolute last moment, he would have slaughtered me.” He gnawed on his lower lip, glancing down his now naked body to look at the bruise in the center of his chest. “I know I was wrong. I think I knew I was wrong during the fight too, but when the resonance built up… That power I felt.”

  “I know.” Isabella said in a surprisingly calm tone. “It’s intoxicating. I think you have it twice as bad as the rest of us. I only had the divine resonance. Killean had the demonic. That’s why it’s all the more important that you listen to me, Greg. I have a vested interest in keeping you alive. Remember that.”

  Greg climbed into the shower, taking a moment to think about that himself. She’d been less than forthcoming regarding why she’d hitched a ride and was helping him to begin with. “You haven’t told me what that vested interest is.” Greg said, letting the hot water wash over him.

  “I have. I came back to help you pick up where I left off. There’s a threat out there pulling strings, and I believe you were summoned to eliminate it.”

  “Yeah, thats what you told me.” He poured some oil he’d picked up at a local health and wellness shop into his hand and spread it into his hair. It smelled like acai, even though the berries that it was made from were closer to the size of coconuts. “I actually believe it’s true, but most of the best lies are, aren’t they?”

  “I’m not lying to you, Greg.” She waited for his response, but when it didn’t come, she continued. “I have another objective, but you’re not strong enough to complete it yet. So right now, my only objective is to help you.”

  “What objective?”

  “It’s not important right now.”

  Greg sighed. “Isabella, I really want to trust you. You’re a soul living in my body, its gonna get really uncomfortable if I can’t. I’m done being blindsided. I’m done reacting. I killed a man today.” He let out a quick choking sound, something between a laugh and a sob. “He might not be dead now, but I killed him. I don’t feel bad about it either. But…” He quirked his head slightly. “Maybe the reason I didn’t listen to you is because we don’t have that trust in each other.”

  “Are you actually trying to manipulate me right now?” She said after a beat.

  “A little. Yeah. Did it work?” Greg asked with a little corner of the mouth grin.

  “It genuinely almost did. That was relatively impressive for such a sad sack little boy.”

  “Woah! Don’t call me a little boy while I’m naked,” Greg frowned in mock indignation. “That’s just rude.”

  “Don’t act like a child and I won’t treat you like one.” She said.

  “You’re really not going to tell me? What harm could it do? If you say I’m not ready, I can accept that. Knowing what your endgame isn’t going to change it.” Greg finished washing off the soap and turned off the water.

  “You’ve got enough plates in the air. Adding another is a good way for them all to come crashing down. If it becomes important for you to know, or somehow linked to what you’re already doing, I’ll inform you. For now, we need you to get stronger.”

  “Fine,” Greg said, rolling his eyes as he toweled off. “I have another unrelated question for you, if you’re up for it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you know how I looted the Miles? He’s human, so I shouldn’t have been able to even start the process. Then it got interrupted.” Greg pulled on a fresh pair of boxer-briefs and rubbed the bruise on his chest.

  “You noticing it was off probably means you came to the same conclusion I did. There is only one way to test that hypothesis, though.” Isabella said.

  Greg nodded, stepping into the room and collapsing on the bed. “Kill a frost kissed and see if I can loot it.”

  “Exactly.”