Cyn wasn’t sure how to feel about Sam and Cirrus attributing so many people’s survival directly to her. She was pretty sure most of the situations Sam had listed would have been handled differently without her presence, and possibly even for the better. Regardless, she was no longer alone and they were wasting time. There was an egg to find.

  Shaking her head lightly, Cyn changed the subject by quickly explaining the first hurdle she had encountered while attempting to get to the tower. She also explained her half-formed plan to use a launched Spam and Soul Slip to get over the trap’s trigger area. It was a plan both men deemed reckless, and Sam called outright stupid. Luckily, since Cirrus was now joining Cyn on this adventure, there was a slightly better option to try.

  The rogue had mentioned having a mana-using skill earlier, specifically one that was meant to be toggled on and off. It allowed him to, briefly, walk across air. The skill’s mana cost was crippling for Cirrus, but he was sure he could make it to the ruins of the tower’s roof before running out of resources. He was not willing to take on the tower by himself, nor was Cyn willing to be left out of it, which left them debating between two options for how she would get across the water.

  The first option, Cyn’s preference, was to use Soul Slip. Sure, the place Cirrus would have to stand for him to be in range of that skill would be just a small chunk of debris, and there was a decent chance she would fall off. Or even knock both of them off the safe area. But she really, really did not like the second option.

  “Cyn... it’s not the first time you have been picked up and carried somewhere. Its objectively safer than trying to teleport, and if anything goes wrong with Cirrus’s skill on the way over, you will be there to heal him too.” Sam sounded exasperated, and she frankly had no real excuses to give them to explain why she was so reluctant to let Cirrus pick her up. She didn’t like being carried in the first place and, while she had been steadily learning to ignore the feeling the rogue’s presumed aura gave off, Cyn still felt extremely averse to the idea of him touching her. But she seemed to be the only person that felt that way.

  “Just trust me, Cyn. It’ll be fine.” She barely suppressed a flinch when Cirrus spoke. I need to tell him to quit that shit with me, regardless of his intentions. After giving the rogue a momentary glare, Cyn finally just agreed to the plan.

  Sam wouldn’t be going with them, at least not for the moment. He was going to help lift Cirrus above the water before he activated the air walking skill, so the rogue did not waste mana crawling to get himself above the surface. Then the Berserker would be rejoining the group on the shore to protect them and create a boat. Mountain and, a little ironically, Fish could not swim, explaining why they were left on the shore in the first place. There was limited water on their planet, so they never had a reason to learn. Cirrus and Cyn were supposed to leave out some kind of sign if they were able to deactivate the trap around the tower so the others could join them.

  After the Berserker gave Spam back to her, Cirrus climbed up out of the water with Sam’s help to stand on top of it using his skill. Cyn couldn’t help but hesitate for a heartbeat as the rogue crouched and put out his hand to help her up. She was not interested in climbing him like a tree, but with limited time and options... Cursing quietly, Cyn took the offered hand to be lifted and unsteadily climb up onto Cirrus’s back. There was no way in hell she was going to be princess carried or thrown over his shoulder.

  As soon as she had a hold of him, Cirrus took off at full speed, sprinting for the shoreline. Cyn felt like her heart might beat out of her chest as they passed into the dead zone, but no fire burst over them since there was a small gap of air between Cirrus’s mana and the water. It took only a few seconds for them to make it across and for the rogue to quickly scramble up the debris to a chunk of roof that had enough room for both of them to stand easily.

  Or sit, since that is immediately what the rogue did when they stopped. Cyn quickly scooted away, noting that the man was panting for breath and looking a little pale. Hesitantly, she asked, “Are you... alright?”

  Cirrus just gave her a thumbs up at first, but after a minute of watching Sam swim away and catching his breath he followed up with, “Yah. Guess it takes more resources when I am carrying someone. Didn’t expect that, and almost ran out of mana.”

  Should have just went with my skill. Shaking the thought away, Cyn began to more closely inspect the tower wall closest to them. She still hadn’t seen a door on the tower, so their best entrance was where the wall had crumbled away with the collapse of the roof. That, of course, was nine or ten floors above their current location. Provided the ivy vines could hold the Human’s weight, it shouldn’t be too bad. Even if they could not, the stones of the tower were uneven enough it shouldn’t be impossible to freeclimb. Extremely difficult, but not impossible. After putting back on her boots, Cyn began to make her way across the rubble towards the wall to test the vines.

  “You really don’t like me, huh?” Cirrus sounded... amused? That wasn’t quite the emotion behind his tone, but it was close enough.

  Turning back around, Cyn found the rogue still sitting, a half-smirk plastered on his face as he studied her intently. Unlike the smiles she had seen on Cirrus’s face before, normally warm and even boyish, there was an emptiness to his expression now that set her on edge. Even more than his presence did normally. “And what makes you say that?”

  Cirrus raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t exactly subtle. Tell me what I did to make you dislike me. ”

  Cyn had had quite enough of sandpaper on her eardrums for one day, snapping back at him, “That skill you are using, with your voice? Stop . I wasn’t enthralled by the Feathered Brine Serpent, what in the hell makes you think I would be influenced by any of your skills?”

  He seemed genuinely shocked a few seconds, half-smirk vanishing and blinking rapidly. “I... Of course. I’m sorry, it’s meant to make you more comfortable with my suggestions. It’s been very helpful in keeping tension low and people productive.”

  That did sound reasonable; similar to the skill that Scott used, just more subtle. No less annoying for Cyn, though. “Yah, I have one that calms people down too. I get that it’s useful, just don’t use it on me. It won’t work and only pisses me off.” Cirrus nodded quickly, starting to stand up. Cyn paused only briefly before continuing, “And your aura? Can you turn that off or is it permanent? Because while I am sure it has a... valid... purpose, it also doesn’t work on me. I assume so anyway, since I am the only person who seems to feel the aura at all. Your nearness is very uncomfortable.”

  Cirrus froze, silently staring at her for a few long moments. When he did speak, his surprised and almost apologetic tone from moments ago had shifted into cool neutrality. “Permanent. I’m sorry it has that effect on you.” Telling the guy that his mere presence made her uncomfortable wasn’t very nice, but she really did not have another way to put it. At least they could both just chalk up her dislike of Cirrus to an unfortunate mixing of skills now.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I’ll just have to get used to it, I guess, since we need to work together.” Shrugging, Cyn turned and resumed her careful steps towards the wall of the tower, balancing on and hopping between small pieces of the roof. She had already started to assume that what she was feeling from Cirrus was just skills similar to Scott’s and her own, and getting that confirmed made her more inclined to look past the nervousness he inspired in her. At least Cirrus shouldn’t try to use them on her directly anymore.

  After a few tests, they determined that the ivy vines would be too risky to climb directly and they would both have to freeclimb up the stone bricks. It was far from ideal, especially with the moss that clung to every surface, but after both of them had regained a bit of stamina through using Meditate for a few minutes, they started climbing. The rogue went first, with Cyn only a short distance behind.

  Cyn had climbed a lot of trees growing up, and had even climbed onto the roof of her childhood home once. Much to her parent’s exasperation. But the moss-covered tower was a whole different ball game. Two thirds of the way up Cyn had yet to slip, but was quickly realizing that while ten stories did not seem that high at the base of the tower, it was a hell of a distance to climb. She was going to run out of stamina before reaching the top if she did not do something, quickly. Since lowering her health enough to counteract the stamina drain would put her in the danger zone - if she could even get enough regen in the first place - Cyn instead circulated a small amount of mana to boost herself and climb faster.

  Cirrus made it to the hole in the wall before she did, but did not immediately climb inside. When Cyn made it herself, with barely any stamina to spare, he helped her get onto the edge of the hole with him as she stopped circulating mana. No reason to hurt herself. Looking down inside the tower, she could see why the rogue had chosen to remain at the jagged hole instead of entering.

  The above ground portion of the tower was empty. There was no indication there had ever been floors between the ground floor and the roof. Runes and symbols she had no hope of reading were scrawled in spiral patterns all along the stone bricks of the interior, running the height of the structure. There were a few lit symbols scattered around, giving soft illumination in addition to the sunlight streaming in, but most of the patterns lay dark. Instead of a ground floor, Cyn could see a thin strip of bricks around the walls that gave way to a spiral staircase descending underground and, far below them, she could make out an amber glow through the gaping center hole of the spiral.

  “We’ll have to climb down.”

  Cyn barely stifled a groan at Cirrus’s words. It was an obvious observation, but she definitely wasn’t happy about it. “I have to rest a little while, or I am going to run out of stamina before we reach the bottom.”

  “I’ll wait up here with you, then. If there are traps, I would rather not find out by myself.” The rogue leaned back carefully, resting his back against the edges of the hole and turning his head to look back out over the lake.

  Fair enough. Nodding, Cyn settled herself on the bricks and closed her eyes. It was not remotely comfortable to straddle the crumbling hole in the wall, and Cirrus’s proximity made it impossible for her to actually relax, but hopefully she would not have to Meditate for long. She felt a slight disorientation upon activating the skill, but thankfully did not lose her balance. Note to self, avoid using Meditate in places that are a fall risk. Since she had not lost her balance, Cyn assumed it should be safe for a short rest.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t Meditating for very long before she felt something shift, followed rapidly by an urgent screeching from Spam. The familiar had been in his normal location in her tabard pouch, not thrilled by the adventure and especially not the height they had to climb to. Cyn didn’t need its warning, however. The shift she had felt was the discomfort of the bricks between her legs vanishing, and that could only mean one thing.

  She was falling.

  Deactivating Meditate confirmed her rapid decent, and instinctually she used an Overloaded Soul Slip to try and rejoin Cirrus where she could see him still at the hole above her. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure Overloading the skill would work. Cyn just had not thought about it before acting, and by the time she realized she was falling she had already passed the standard max distance for Soul Slip.

  Unfortunately for Cirrus, Overload did work with Soul Slip. But the extra infusion of mana completely ruined Cyn’s normal alterations for the skill that would cause her to not collide with her target. She slammed into the carefully balanced rogue, hard. Disoriented, and suffering from major backlash after using the incorrectly modified Soul Slip, Cyn barely had the cognitive ability to grab hold of Cirrus’s shirt to prevent herself from falling again.

  Cirrus himself was straining to not fall back out of the tower with Cyn on top of him, cursing loudly. As he pulled them both back into a mostly upright position, a series of popping sounds reached their ears. The rogue froze, going silent for a moment.

  Right before the bricks they were sitting on began to shift, crumbling free of their mortar.

  Now they both were falling.

  Fuck. Cyn was still suffering from backlash, and that single word was the only thing that flashed through her mind as the pair descended rapidly downward, passing the ground floor of the tower in only a few seconds. Then, she found herself holding onto nothing rather than the rogue’s shirt as Cirrus pushed away from her.

  She was still falling, but Cirrus wasn’t. Cyn watched as the now shirtless man scrambled to his feet atop an invisible platform, and jumped for the safety of the spiral staircase that curled around the hole they were falling through. Fair. Too bad I didn’t take Slow Fall. She did not blame Cirrus for saving himself.

  As Cyn’s mind recovered enough to think in more than single word sentences, she started to pull out potions and chug them. She still had quite a few listed as having ‘additional affects’, but without Hex’s help she had no idea what exactly those effects were. Another thing for the to do list. How big is that list, now? Maybe I should start writing these things down... Chaotic thoughts aside, Cyn was pretty sure she was falling too far and too fast to survive. The potions were a gamble, but a gamble was all she had. Potions didn’t have explicit cooldowns, either, though she did feel some innate aversion to drinking them back-to-back. According to Fish, who had once ignored that aversion, after a few potions she became very sick.

  Sick was still better than dead, probably.

  The first potion turned her skin a weird shade of orange. Hope that’s not permanent. Kind of clashes with the blue.

  The second one did not seem to do anything immediately, but after her first experience with these potions she knew that that did not mean it would not have a delayed effect. There was no time to wait for it, as the light below her was increasing in intensity.

  The third potion is where she started to feel nauseous, and after finishing the bottle she burped up a small ball of fire that fizzled out after traveling a very short distance. It burned something fierce the whole way up her esophagus, and did not feel good on the mouth.

  She was only halfway through chugging the fourth potion when Cyn no longer had hands to hold it. She was already disoriented and panicking, and that only became worse as she felt her body contort and change. It was fast, and not painful, at least. The change left her facing downward, towards what she could now see was a pool of water at the bottom of the tower. The light she had been able to see from above came from something under that water. Cyn only had one thought before hitting the surface.

  Do sheep take reduced fall damage?