Nate stood by the wall, his Brush of a Thousand Paints carefully colouring in the stone wall of the room he shared with Kiri. His sister lay on the bed behind him, watching from beneath the blanket as he painted a picture that was meant to represent her rebirth. The idea of being reborn was hard to capture so he had resorted to symbolism. In the background of the painting were tents like the ones they had seen in Princess Morgane’s war camp. Then closer, in the foreground, he had painted a couple of corpses and tombstones. The corpses looked like Kiri, splayed out and bleeding, pale in death. The tombstones all bore her name, with various epitaphs. Then finally, front and centre of the foreground was Kiri again, shining in a cloud of blue and white light, daggers fanned out around her as she prepared for battle.

  “You sure it’s not too macabre?” he asked. “The corpses I mean…”

  “No, I love it. It’s me. Constantly being reborn through combat. I like the writings on the graves. ‘Do not look for her, for she is not here. She is reborn.’ It’s perfect.”

  “Do you do that here?” he wondered out loud. “The gravestones, I mean.”

  “No, not in Etrua anyway. Beyond its borders, who knows? In Etrua, we usually burn the dead and spread their ashes somewhere they loved or keep them in an urn.”

  Nate nodded as he continued painting. Kiri seemed in a good mood and he hoped his painting was helping. So, with that in mind, he tried to push the issue that had been worrying him for the last few days.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  He didn’t look back at his sister, not that he needed to. He could sense her body tense up in his sphere of awareness, before she slowly relaxed and watched as he continued to refine and improve the painting of her.

  “No. I really don’t. But I should and…” she huffed, sinking deeper into the cloud-enchanted mattress. “...normally it would be mum pressing me to talk about it. To let my emotions out. Dad would just work me to the bone. He’d take me out into Firth Forest and we’d hunt. The pace he used to set would be absolutely brutal. I’d be scrambling to keep up with him, while he made it look sooo easy. And I would try to keep up…because I wanted it…what he had…to make it look easy. So I would break myself trying to keep up with him and it would be all I could focus on. By the time we got home each night I would be so tired I would just shovel some food into me and then collapse onto my bed. I think a couple of times I didn’t even make it that far. But I always woke up in bed, you know? Then the morning would come and mum would be on me to have a bath because I stank of sweat and the forest, not that I minded, but I would want breakfast and she’d use that to get me to wash up. They would keep me busy like that until I dealt with my feelings. Mum gently prodding and dad keeping me too tired to dwell on it.”

  Kiri sighed and Nate simply waited, knowing she wasn’t done, and that she was just approaching the topic in the best way she knew how.

  “But…they’re not here. And you are.”

  “I always will be,” he interjected without turning, his focus on the painting. He knew his sister well enough to know that she would find it easier to share if she didn’t feel like she was being watched.

  “Yeah, you will, won’t you?” replied Kiri, though the question was clearly rhetorical. He could hear the smile in her voice as easily as he could sense the shift in her lips. It reminded him for a moment, about his own issues, his paranoia. Even now, underground and about as difficult to detect as he could make them without creating mythic materials, he still hadn’t dropped his sphere of awareness. A problem for another day, he decided, setting that aside to focus on Kiri.

  “Thank you for that. For saying it. I know I think it, but there is something about hearing the words come out of your mouth that’s different, you know? I’ll always be with you as well, little brother,” Kiri said softly.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” he remarked with an amused smile on his lips, casually expanding his barrier to protect his painting from the thrown pillow.

  “See! That’s what I was trying to get too. You take an entirely different approach to my parents. It’s like you just…poke at the problem gently…until I react. But not in a bad way. You just make talking about it feel normal. Safe. I don’t know what I am trying to say, but you still understand what I mean right?” Kiri asked, still smiling in amusement.

  “I do. So, did you want to talk about it? Or just…around it?” he replied, pressing a little harder.

  “Fine. I want to talk about it,” Kiri answered gruffly. “Not that there is much to talk about. She used me. Used me to get close to Morgane and then tried to poison her. It explains everything. Why she was so unhappy and distant. I just…” Kiri trailed off.

  “You have to suspect Allais put her up to it,” Nate commented. He knew the reminder would make Kiri angry, but he wanted a way for his sister to let off steam before they eventually encountered Evelynn Allais, and likely Coralie as well.

  Kiri responded immediately, “Of course I know her mother put her up to it. That evil bitch is the worst. And I do blame her mother for most of it…but it’s hard not to put some of the blame on Coralie too. She could have talked to me. She could have stood up to her mother. She could’ve done so many things. Anything really, except doing exactly what her mother wanted.”

  Nate could sense the tears on Kiri’s cheeks. He wanted to comfort her, but he also knew she wasn’t ready. Right now they were tears of anger and frustration and he’d been around her long enough to know that when she was angry that she wouldn’t want to be touched.

  “You sound like you're…disappointed in Coralie, more than angry at her,” he added to keep her talking.

  “I suppose…yeah, you’re right. I am. I’m not angry at her. I’m disappointed. She didn’t live up to the ideal I had of her in my head. She could be so fierce, you know? Like when she first approached us before the Tournament. And at the Royal University she was so competitive. She could fight for things, so…why couldn’t she fight for us? She chose her mother over me, and I can’t hate her for that…I want to, but I can’t. I just…wasn’t I the better choice?”

  The dam finally broke and tears streamed down his sister's face. He was by her side in an instant, sitting on the edge of the bed and holding her as she sobbed and let out all the emotions that she had been bottling up for days. The betrayal, the disappointment, the fear of death and the uncertainty. He sat still and let her pour it all out onto his robe, his barrier dropped for the first time in days.

  He waited as she cried and after she seemed spent, he slowly let go as Kiri sat up in the bed.

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  “Thanks,” she muttered quietly, rubbing at her eyes as she brushed away the remaining tears. “I did need that. Gods, I already feel a bit better.”

  “Any time,” he replied with a smile as he stood and returned to the painting of her. “Gods. It’s funny you should mention them. Do you have it in you to talk a little more?”

  Kiri nodded, “Yeah, the pity party is over. Let's talk about anything else.”

  Nate debated whether to go along with her suggestion. He really did want to talk about some of the things he had been thinking about, but he also wanted to give Kiri time to mull over her feelings if that was what she needed.

  Kiri picked up on his hesitancy, “Really. Anything else. I’m not done with the whole Coralie thing and my feelings on it, but I am spent. What did you want to talk about?”

  Nate relented, tossing his antiscrying ward onto the bed as he let it fill the room. He doubted anyone else was intentionally listening in, but what he was about to share wasn’t common knowledge and definitely not something he wanted the apprentices to hear.

  “I was thinking about our upcoming evolution. We’ve theorised that the stage after Mythic is whatever separates mortals from gods, right?”

  Kiri nodded and Nate forged on, “And obviously, we’re pushing to try and bridge that gap. I even think we’re on the right track with our Embodiments or whatever they are. But we haven’t really talked about the implications.”

  “What do you mean?” Kiri asked, sitting forward.

  “When I was taken to the Fourth Hell…when Arikanvil appeared…and told me that I had to accept the Demon Lord’s offer of a challenge…he explained why.”

  “I remember,” Kiri said. “It was something about reciprocity right?”

  “Right,” Nate agreed. “He said that the Demon Lord had dragged me into the Hells and because of that he had to balance taking me without my permission else the System would punish him for violating reciprocity. The challenge…well…it was meant to be beatable, but almost impossible. Which is why the rewards were so powerful. But it was the ‘why’ an offer had to be made that I am thinking of. Arikanvil said if the Demon Lord, which he called a ‘Lesser Divinity’, violated the Law of Reciprocity, that even its minions would be able to kill it.”

  Kiri leaned back into the pillows behind her and adjusted the blanket, already distracted from her previous emotions.

  “You’re wondering how?” she asked.

  “I’m wondering what the System punishment for violating the Law of Reciprocity is, actually,” Nate replied with a grin, glancing over his shoulder before returning to the painting.

  “Huh. I mean, it’s gotta be a loss of access to the Class Core right?”

  “That is what I am guessing it is. I was thinking how it would influence us. We’d both be almost crippled. I imagine almost anyone would,” remarked Nate.

  “Yeah…wow…I wouldn’t be able to do anything. All I would have is the bit of runecraft you’ve done to my bones. I’d even lose access to the items stored in my spiritual space.”

  “Exactly!” he replied. “Which…could be a problem.”

  Kiri leaned forward again, waiting for him to continue.

  “The Law of Reciprocity doesn’t seem to affect us, right? Only…Gods…Divines, whatever they’re called. Preventing them from interfering with mortals unless they abide by the idea of reciprocity. At least, that is the little I have been able to piece together.”

  Nate turned to look at her pointedly and Kiri paled.

  “We wouldn’t be able to fight against them,” she whispered. “Even Allais…she’s still a mortal. If I killed her I would lose access to my Class Core…unless…there has to be loopholes, right? The Demon Lord that took you was trying to use one.”

  “I am sure there are, but I don’t know how it works…and I don’t know if there is anyone we could even ask,” Nate replied, turning back to the painting, trying to hide his worries at hearing his own conclusion voiced out loud.

  “So, what do we do? We just avoid evolving to the next tier?” Kiri pressed.

  “Is that what you want?” Nate countered.

  “By the Hells, no! But what else can we do?” Kiri spat in frustration.

  “We could wait on the cusp.”

  Kiri leaned back again, her switching positions each time showing her feelings on the topic, oscillating between interested and frustrated. Nate continued to paint, letting his sister digest the idea. After a few minutes, she finally spoke.

  “We’d be fighting at a disadvantage,” she remarked.

  “Only in terms of levels. I’ve yet to see another Mythic, so in terms of Skill tier we would still be higher. And we can keep improving our Skills. Their levels aren’t tied to the Class evolution. But yes, we would be at a disadvantage against most Platinums. I could try and make us equipment to bridge that gap. And then there are the runes on our skeletons. And perhaps a few other things I can try. I haven’t even been able to look at the Empowerment Array Champion Armour that we stole from Asmuisil. Too busy setting up this base of operations and preparing the runecrafted items you’ll need to collect information when you go scouting in the city.”

  “That’s true…” Kiri acknowledged. “Damn, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth…but I don’t want to wait till level one-hundred-and-twenty to evolve my Classes to the next tier.”

  “It’ll be dangerous, of course, not evolving as soon as we can, unless we wash our hands of this conflict. Unless we leave.”

  Even as he suggested it, he could hear how half-hearted it was in his own ears. Staying and not evolving his Classes was incredibly dangerous. He’d fought a Platinum now and while he was confident that given some time, between his Skills and creations, that he could bridge the gap to face one, what would he do if there were two? Or more? At the same time, he didn’t want to abandon Britt, or Null, or Aisling and her Guild. Because he knew with certainty that his mentor and guardian wouldn’t leave.

  “We could…” Kiri said, interrupting his thoughts.

  “But your parents,” he finished for her.

  “Yeah, they might leave, if they were forced. But I don’t think they would want to. Mum loves Helmfirth. She loves her garden and her home. I don’t want her to have to leave because of us or because Etrua has gone to shit because of Bordain. It’s dangerous, I know, but my vote is we stay. That’s what a hero would do, right?”

  “Right,” Nate agreed, though in his heart he didn’t see himself as a hero. Just a curious artist who would do anything for his friends. If that meant swallowing his misgivings and accepting the risks that would come, then so be it.

  “So, we’re staying?” asked Kiri quietly.

  He appreciated that she knew he was different to her. That the idea of danger and being a hero didn’t excite him. Every morning he woke up to create things. It could be painting, or a new rune, or a new runecrafted item — anything really. Travelling to Galle had changed his world but not who he was and he lamented every moment spent in conflict instead of crafting or learning. If he was a hero, and he didn’t think he was, but if he was one, he was a reluctant hero.

  With a sigh and a little sadness in his eyes he nodded to Kiri, “We’re staying. I chose a side. I offered to help Morgane, and our friends. We’ll stay until that’s done.”

  “And after?” Kiri queried.

  “After…if I can…would you like to see where I came from?” he asked, his voice uncertain. Not because he thought she would say no, but because he wasn’t sure he should even ask. He wasn’t talking about going to another country. He was asking if she wanted to go to another universe.

  “Definitely,” Kiri said firmly. “When we’ve cleaned up everyone else’s messes, let's go back to your home. I want to try some of your food anyway!”

  Nate grinned and nodded, “It’s a deal.”

  Kiri smiled back and then her head snapped to the side, looking up and off into the distance.

  “What is it?” he asked quickly.

  “Luc’s back,” she stated with a vicious smile and Nate understood. With the Arcane Riftwalker returned, they could finally start considering making moves in the Capital. His mind immediately went to Britt.

  “We’re coming,” he said softly, ignoring the knowing look on his sister's face.

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