The magic of his personal gate was already building up around Miles when an idea struck him.

  He had been considering when he would need to come back and check on Thalia and the others. While it seemed that Talon was trustworthy enough, he still had to make sure his sister was safe, free, and well cared for. Especially if the Inquisitor’s investigation had attracted more attention. And he didn’t mind making sure Brie and Lott were alright as well, with the two having started to grow on him. Plus, he had dragged them along into his mess, so at the very least, he’d like to make sure they were alright as well. But with the deadline he had for reaching Duskmire, Miles really wanted to focus rather than have to go back and forth up the surface and right as the first tendrils of the protective shell began surrounding him, the solution crystallized in his mind.

  Unsure whether he could abort the gate’s process at this point, Miles cursed and threw himself out of the brightening circle of intricate swirling glyphs, breaking through the still weak hold of the magic and landing on the soft grass at the feet of the platform. Without a target to transport, the circle stalled for a moment, and Miles braced but thankfully, the grand spell had some safety measures included and instead of detonating, the collected mana began to slowly vent out.

  He had cut it close. With a sigh, he summoned the blue leather-bound notebook and cracked it open. “This should just take a few minutes, and then I’m free to go,” he muttered.

  ***

  Thalia’s POV

  “Are you sure? On both counts?”

  Talon’s voice carried easily enough out of his office door and hearing the pressing tone of it, Thalia straightened her back a little and adjusted the spear on her back. While she had only known the man for less than 24 hours, she felt she was getting a little grasp on his temperament. Talon Ironvault—her best friend’s brother—was often easy going and was quick to laugh. She believed that deep down, that might be who he was. If one were to take away all the responsibilities and whatever it was that made high-tier individuals so… larger than life, the result would be someone you’d enjoy having a drink with after a long day’s work. Oddly enough, he reminded her of Miles, before he had disappeared. Hearing him now though, and seeing how busy the lobby was with people packing and rushing about, she knew something was going on. She couldn’t say what happened exactly while she’d been sleeping and because no one would give them answer, but clearly something’s happening. Something that seemed to be putting the Inquisitor on edge, and the answer the assistant provided only confirmed her suspicion.

  “Yes sir. No anomalous use of the gate was reported since last night, but the issue with the headcount is—”

  The assistant cut himself off, glancing behind as Thalia, Brie, and Lott were ushered in. It wasn’t like they were intruded. Talon had summoned them. Still, Thalia almost wanted to back out of the room though neither Talon or his assistant said anything. The assistant just leaned forward and whispered the end of his sentence without Thalia being able to pick up what he said, but from the slight twitch of Talon’s brow, it didn’t seem like it was anything good.

  His message received, the assistant gave Talon a short bow then hurried on out, leaving a sighing Inquisitor whose demeanor immediately changed. He smiled wide at them, and gestured for them to approach.

  “Good morning! Sorry about the mess. An emergency came and I got to get going,” Talon said, looking past them for a moment. “Did you all manage to get something to eat before you were brought here?”

  Thalia’s brows lifted and shook her head, mirroring the reaction of her two companions though when she stole a look to her right, she found Brie frowning at her sibling. Was this it? Were they being let go? The prospect filled her chest like a breath of fresh, invigorating air. As soon as she was out of here, she would put every ounce of energy at her disposal into never having to deal with anything like this again.

  Thalia was done being a cog. As soon as she had breakfast and checked on her mom, that was. And maybe shouted a little at Miles.

  Talon sighed and pressed his lips together as she shook his head. “Well, I apologize for that. And for bringing you in this early. Short of it is, I’m still a little worried about your safety once I’m gone. Sure, the odds that anyone would come after any of you are remote, and after some recent updates, the risk should be even slimmer. But even then, I’d rather not tempt fate, so I’ll be leaving a couple of people to watch over you two for a few more days. Shadow Lott, you should be able to fend for yourself, but I’d like you to stick around just to be safe. It’d be easier that way to ensure security. If you have to tend to your personal business, make it quick. In the meantime, give them some private lessons that’d justify you three keeping contact without attracting too much scrutiny,” Talon said, to which Lott nodded before the Inquisitor turned to Brie and Thalia.

  “You two, you are technically on leave from the city. I arranged it so you’d have a week of paid leave to prepare for your Delver’s Exam starting today. Use the time to both train with Shadow Lott and stay out of trouble. I’ll be in touch within a few days and if there’s any issues. The protectors I assigned will intervene and talk to you if needed, but if they don’t, leave them be. Once things settle, they will tell you before leaving. Understood?”

  “Yes sir,” echoed Thalia and Lott, while Brie continued staring at her brother.

  It was taking everything in Thalia not to turn and bolt out the door. After a minute more of pleasantries, both Thalia and Lott were told to wait outside while the two sibling had a moment, which Thalia used to check on Lott.

  “How was it?” she whispered, only leaning her a head a little to the side as she spoke.

  Lott was silent for a second, and when she gave him a sidelong glance, their eyes met, and he just shook his head a little before answering. “Pleasant. The Inquisitor’s people had a few questions, and I believe I answered to their satisfaction. As for our scheduled training, is there anything you wish to focus on?”

  Getting on with the program, Thalia spoke candidly on what she wanted to work on, the first of which was going to be registering for the exam as soon as she was out of the building. Lott listened, peppering a few questions here and there and suggesting a few spots they ought to visit. Specifically, other large guilds. While sparring against other fellow Vanguards was good and all, sparring against different archetypes and strategies was of the utmost importance. While she might be good enough to pass the exam, in a real-world scenario where she might clash with other delving parties she might find herself unprepared.

  Brie’s talk with her sibling took nearly five minutes and when her friend came out, the frown was gone, and the joyful red-haired mage gave them a cheeky grin. You guys up for some breakfast before we get started?”

  ***

  George’s POV

  While George generally enjoyed the experience of walking around the humans and their sprawling cities, smelling their foods and watching them go about their business, he had to admit, not having his usual stature made navigating the crowd a little annoying. And while usually he insisted on his altered form to be at least a head higher than most, Miles had insisted on stealth, and the witch would not miss a chance at rubbing in the inconvenience. In fact, he was sure she would have made him even shorter if she had been willing to jeopardize their mission. But even with all of her tendencies to spread chaos for her own twisted fun, she wouldn’t take such a risk.

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  But instead, he had to shuffle along the crowd, ignoring those who stepped on his toes and of course, the hag noticed.

  “This isn’t too crowded for you, I hope?” Hazel asked, a little smug smile on her lips as she picked away cat hair out the sleeve of her green robe. George had met the cat briefly when Miles had summoned him, but he hadn’t had the chance to play with it. A cute little thing. Too good for the hag. But if she thought she was going to get under his skin, she had another thing coming.

  “It’s nostalgic,” he smiled back to her, none of his frustration showing on his face. There wasn’t that much of it anyway. He was used to the outdoors, and he did like his personal space, but George was adaptable and he was having fun. Which ought to annoy the witch. She could make mountains out of molehills if he gave her the chance, but depriving her of a sensitive spot to press would be just as annoying to her. “It’s been a while since we’ve gotten the chance to walk among them. But I admit, keeping an eye on our quarry is a little challenging from this angle.”

  It wasn’t impossible, of course. While their existence as summons wasn’t the same as living delvers, George—and his step-siblings, if he could call them that—had access to all of their abilities and strengths. At least, those they would have at their current level of power, which he estimated to be slightly above tier-25. They had cores. They had Skills. But they were all… constructs, of sorts.

  Suffice it to say, keeping an eye on the Inquisitor’s protectors and the trio was easy enough. And while even by himself he might have enough for the task, having Hazel made them only more effective, especially considering she had a tracker on the Shadow.

  “You take away the fun of everything,” Hazel grumbled and George chuckled, his right eye twinkling as he scratched under the left eye-patch.

  “You do know I’m not only good against physical jabs, do you?”

  To that, the witch harrumphed, and crossed her arms. In the distance, their quarry settled in at table outside of a bakery for a late breakfast.

  ***

  Back at the lip of the dark chasm of the third floor, Miles found himself a small cave, activated the loop, placed a vial glowing with soft-blue light between his teeth—an elixir of feather-fall—then jumped down into the darkness of the Shattered Depths. Within a couple of seconds, the wind rushing past his ears grew from a soft whistle to a terrifying howl. All around him, torches came and went in the blink of an eye as he plummeted down the darkness. Of course, Miles could see just fine in the dark so by angling his body, he could adjust his trajectory well enough. The chasm was long and wide enough to allow him a safe fall, but he still had to be wary of the bridges that connected both sides. They couldn’t really kill him, but he also didn’t want to accidentally kill anyone by dropping a bridge from under their feet.

  This of course wasn’t a strategy many could employ, but those who could definitely abused it. After all, unlike most other floors, the free-fall drastically cut into how long it took one to cross the floor so it wasn’t surprising to him when the holes in the wall began growing more numerous, and so Miles retrieved the vial from his mouth, uncorked, then let the half-physical, half-energetic mixture flow into his mouth.

  He was glad he hadn’t needed the emergency administration method. Picking glass out of his mouth was not fun. Then again, that was on him. He’d heard there were special vials for emergency uses that cracked safely, but he hadn’t had the time to track them down.

  Miles swallowed, and the elixir instantly flowed down his throat and spread through his body. Immediately, the howl of the wind subsided into a soft breeze as his fall slowed down, and he began scanning his surroundings for something he could use for Aunt Seren’s tier-3 extract while the darkness around him began growing a little heavier.

  The 4th is going to be annoying. But after that it gets a little easier to get through, he mused to himself as he looked around, until his eyes noted a few flashes a few hundred feet away, and the muffled sound of shouting reached his ears, one of which was a familiar screech that Miles hadn’t heard in a while.

  Angling himself toward the closest cliffside, Miles landed on one of the countless ledges that lined the cliffside and burned away the remains of the elixir before he broke into a sprint.

  Whomever these people were, they were lucky. If they were losing, he was about to save their bacon. If they were winning, well, they would get themselves a buyer for the cliffwyrm, and Miles was willing to pay premium.

  Hopefully they won’t be too difficult.

  ***

  Astrid’s POV

  “Disengage! [Fireball]!”

  The bead shot out from Astrid’s open spellbook as she channeled more mana into it, preparing for the next spell. As soon as her voice rang out, Theron and Helena pulled back and used the explosion to take a breather. Both were in a rough shape, but they weren’t anywhere close to dropping and as the flames parted, they rushed back in toward the writhing, over-sized lizard.

  That’ll show it, she thought, panting as she readied her next spell before stealing a glance back, lest another of the creature sneak up on them but thankfully, Silas was keeping an eye out. He was injured, but he still had enough juice to watch over her and their Torchbearers.

  Astrid took a slow breath and continued preparing her spell. The page glowed with power while the [Light Arrow] slowly grew larger. She was over-powering the spell, and that was taking focus. But she could hold nothing back, especially with them being so close to the exit. After all, they’d reached the bottom of the chasm, and the Waystation should be less than an hour away. They’d spend the night or two, rest up, then head down to the Warren.

  “Arrow in 3…2…1”

  The Vanguards pulled back once more and the arrow shot out silently. Astrid saw the cliffwyrm twist it’s elongated neck at the bright light but by the time its mind registered the vision, the arrow sunk into its flank and it trashed in pain, though by now, its movements were growing lethargic.

  Lethargic enough for Theron to finally put his spears into its heart.

  They were winning and right as she had that thought, a growl echoed behind her, and Astrid’s heart dropped. She looked back, but she saw nothing. The sound was reverberating through the countless dug-out tunnels, but whatever was coming, it was close.

  And then—the growl turned into a pained howl, not too unlike a kicked-dog would make.

  When Astrid looked around, she realized that Theron and Helena had joined her, and all of them—Silas, Roland, and Lyra included—shared silent looks and mouthed words that none of them could make sense off. None of them dared speak, and when they heard the running steps, they all stopped breathing, until a familiar figure emerged out of the darkness, and like puppets with their strings cut, both Vanguards and their Warden dropped to the ground as they gasped for breath.

  “Well, what are the odds,” said Miles as he looked from one face to the next, a big smile on his face. “How have you guys been?”

  Astrid chuckled tiredly, and letting her spellbook dissolve away, she took a seat down herself and reached for her water canteen.

  Unsurprisingly, Miles didn’t stay long. But even with how brief the encounter ended up being, it still left them in shocked silence while he disappeared into the darkness, like some sort of weird, Dungeon emissary.

  Seeing their state, he’d offered them each a tier-10 healing elixir—which Astrid was pretty sure none of them could afford. Maybe if they pooled their funds together. In exchange, he took away the wyrm they’d just killed before telling them to present themselves to the Torchbearer Guild in Duskmire if they made it down there.

  “Is this what they call a fateful encounter?” asked Theron as he cradled the glowing green vial, his voice echoing around them. All of them looked up from the little life-saving treasure in their hands at the Vanguard, and while Astrid had never considered herself to be superstitious, right now, she couldn’t say whether she believed in that concept or not.

  But she wasn’t against benefiting from it and honestly, she was looking forward to reaching Duskmire. She was curious what he had in store for them. With such a wind in their sails, they could go far. But for now, she’d settle for a bed.