He was outside the Foundry for less than a second before he bounced back to the Academy with the realization that he had an unfinished task. The sight of the Foundry entrance had sparked the memory of a promise made and he was here to make it a promise fulfilled.

  He stood inside the gates to the Academy. They were a tremendous magical construct that spanned the entirety of the mountain pass leading up to the Academy. As far as Duke knew they had never been fully closed and were not likely to ever be. But it was here that he went to work.

  The start was simple enough, he used his Ability to carve into the cliff near the gate, making another set of gates that led into the hall he was constructing. Unconsciously, he made it look very similar to the Hall of Possibilities which reminded him of yet another unfinished project. He put the thought aside for now to finish what he was working on at the moment.

  In all, it took less than five minutes to complete the entire structure including the beautifully elaborate sign above the gates that clearly described what lay in wait for anyone stepping through the gates – the Portal to the Celestial Foundry of Teldin. With a smile on his face, he flashed to the Foundry and created a sister structure near the entrance there. Finally, he finished it off by creating the actual Portal between the two places.

  When he stepped out of the building, opening the gates into the Foundry, he was met with cheers. There was a group of what Duke could only assume were mages given their distinctly similar robes. They were all black robes but the patterns and accents embroidered upon them were different. He was not sure, but he guessed the embroidery declared their specialties.

  “Is this truly a passage back to the Academy?”

  Duke pointed at the sign overhead and gave the leather-aproned-man an “are you kidding me?” look. The uncomfortable chuckle he got in response preceded the presumed smith shuffling off. Duke did not stick around for other similarly inane questions and returned to the outside.

  Ophirian was not waiting for him but there was someone else. As he appeared, a head of golden blonde hair spun around to face Duke. The flash of anger and hurt in Aurelia’s eyes made Duke take a step back. What did I do now?

  “You’re getting ready to leave again, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, there’s a lot that needs to be done to stop the Syndicate.”

  “Were you even going to come see me?” The hurt in her voice surprised Duke. His mind flashed back to their separation, and he became even more confused – she had broken things off, not him.

  The next words out of Duke’s mouth were honest, but not thought-out, “You broke things off. You walked away from me. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  Duke saw the slap coming but did not respond as she shouted in frustration at him, “You infuriating man! Don’t you understand anything?”

  He stared back at her, stunned as she continued, “I wanted you to chase me, to pursue me. Not to just let me go like a failed experiment. Not to step out of my life forever!”

  Duke’s mind went into complete vapor-lock as he had no response. He stared at her mouth agape.

  “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”

  The words flowed out of his mouth before his brain could reel them in, “I never stopped loving you. I never wanted to see you hurt again. I don’t want you to die on me again. There’s been too much death but it’s not over.”

  “That’s it? You’re afraid?”

  “Baslin is dead.” Duke blurted it out. He felt completely out of control. All his vaunted Abilities and inflated stats couldn’t stop him from saying it.

  It was Aurelia’s time to stop and stare. Her anger fled as a wave of grief gripped her. “When? What happened?”

  “It just happened in your timeline.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “You’ve heard of the Academy, right? Well, he wanted to teach others magic more than anything else in all the Cosmos and the Academy gave him the perfect opportunity to do so. But he also knew that there would always be strife coming for us, so he had Sam speed up the time in the Academy. He sped it up so much that one day here was a thousand days there. In the few months I was gone, he aged over three hundred years. He died peacefully of old age. I sat next to him and told him of my journeys. He died with a calm smile on his face, holding my hand.”

  “Oh, Duke.” She smashed herself into him, gripping him with all the strength she could muster, sobbing into his shoulder. He held her, feeling the familiar warmth of her body against his and his own warring emotions and hormones. He did not notice the passage of time as he held her, comforting her. Nor did he notice Nystrial’s annoyed sparking as she rose from Duke’s nest of hair.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Elsewhere, Edgemont stood before the door that housed a dungeon. He had not touched the door itself but had instead called for a specific specialist. This was going to be an expensive venture but Edgemont didn’t mind the expense. The events of the quarter so far had already led to a massive write-off in the making. He was simply making the write-off bigger if this failed. If it succeeded, it could erase the write-off and turn a true profit for the quarter. It was a risk he was willing to take.

  His messages informed him that the third Core fleet had returned to the station and they would be joining him in about two hours. He acknowledged the message and thanked them for responding to his summons so quickly. He decided that simply waiting wasn’t the best use of his time and returned to his desk – he had yet another sector commander to recruit.

  “Shame, really. Nonetes had such great potential. He even made some solid decisions. The man had captured Duke after all.”

  Edgemont went back to studying the recordings of the office that had been saved but saw they cut off before anything really happened. The replay that Vaelith had provided did not give enough detail on what really happened to the stasis device. That the device had vanished was also concerning. There was no indicative flash that would have accompanied it being placed in a spatial storage device. The lack of actual information irritated Edgemont. He was always in the know and this lack of information was grating on his nerves. To distract himself, he reviewed the potential replacement candidates for the sixth time. No one really matched his needs. His frustration continued to grow.

  He was exceedingly thankful when the Core-hunting team arrived in his office. They were an eclectic mix of races but all were armed to the teeth, gills, upper appendages, whatever. The leader, a human as all the leaders of the Core teams were, approached Edgemont’s desk and presented himself with a crisp salute.

  “Core Team Three reporting for special assignment as requested.”

  “Very good, Team Leader Halifax. This is a unique situation that will not leave this circle. Am I understood?” As he spoke, Edgemont pressed out with the fullness of his INTIMIDATION Ability, forcing the group to endure his amplified ten thousand points of Psyche as it battered their collective will aside. They all nodded their assent. Edgemont was impressed. Not too many could withstand an effective 100,000 Psyche push. That made him even more certain that he had called in the right team. They would not fail him.

  “Excellent,” Edgemont declared as he lifted the effects of his Ability and continued, “We have, in the next office, a dungeon entrance attached to the office door. My studies of it show it to be very high-Tier. Perhaps even as high as an eight or nine.”

  The team leader involuntarily interrupted out of sheer surprise, “That’s higher than we have seen in centuries. We’ve never been able to retrieve a Core of that quality before!”

  Edgemont let the slip in decorum go as he shared the excitement of the team. “Precisely. I know you came prepared, but make sure you are exceedingly well-prepared before attempting the delve. And, if you are lucky, you may find Alpho Nonetes, the sector commander in there still alive. If you could bring him back with the Core, I would be most appreciative. Exceedingly so.”

  The last statement was said with a particular glint in his eye that Edgemont had cultivated over the centuries. It conveyed the potential reward with just a glance and cemented the thought in the team’s minds. So easy to manipulate – just like everyone else.

  With the admonition in place, Halifax gathered her team and returned to their ship to gather their “special reserve” gear. This gear was filled with powerful one-time use items that they had gathered over the years. They rarely tapped into this resource for obvious reasons but Edgemont had made it clear that this was no ordinary Delve and Core Retrieval mission. The potential of retrieving a Tier Nine Core was simultaneously exciting and daunting. No one on the team was above Tier Seven on the team and they were the highest Tier team in the Core teams.

  Daleen Halifax nearly emptied her storage locker of specialized equipment. She had not approached a Delve with anything resembling fear in decades. This particular Delve, however, had her concerned. They would have to be careful. If this really was a Tier Nine dungeon, any bosses would be spectacularly difficult and possibly something that no one had ever seen before.

  While she waited for the rest of the team to prepare their gear, she took one last look at her Character Sheet, focusing on her experience section. As a Tier Seven, she was just under 100,000 experience short of level 348. This could be the Delve that finally pushed her over those last four levels and break her into Tier Eight. That would make it all worth it. But she also knew that they could be outclassed in there and that was not something she was used to feeling.

  Over-preparation was the name of the game this time. Storage devices were filled with consumables – potions of exquisite quality, charms that could provide massive short-term boosts, field generators of countless exotic energies, even quantum explosives. Nothing was left out. They were as prepared as they could be.

  Finally, they gathered outside the dungeon entrance and Edgemont handed each of them a talisman that none of them had ever seen before. The inquisitive looks he received from the team made Edgemont smile to himself.

  “These are temporal tokens. They will counter any time manipulations that will slow down time for you. They do have limits and will not last past this Delve but I am not going to lose the Syndicate’s best Core Retrieval team to a simple time trap. Be careful in there and complete your mission. Bring me that Core!”

  “Yes sir!” Halifax nodded to Malkiefor, her troll-blooded, Stoneborn Breacher to lead the way. He stepped forward and activated the dungeon entrance and a second later, the entire Core Retrieval team had entered the dungeon.

  Edgemont kept himself out of the line of sight of the dungeon entrance. The clawed hand that had grabbed Nonetes still haunted him. He was sure that he could survive the dungeon at his Tier, but that would require exercising Abilities he had long left dormant. Physical work was for the underlings, after all. Finally, the entrance closed and returned to just appearing to be a door.

  “Good luck to you all.” Edgemont sighed, knowing that he had done what he could to this point without truly tapping into the company’s greater resources. He returned to his desk to expand his search for another sector commander. Maybe I should pull someone from another sector? Expanding my search parameters might be worthwhile as long as I can ensure personal loyalty.