(Dyn)

  Dyn woke up to the dissatisfied shouting of Ru. “What is is a refugee doing on my quest?!” she asked. Her demanding voice carried down the hallway, slipping under his door as she stomped her way toward his —a tiny room, barely rger than a closet.

  Dyn suspected it was the smallest they had. He was still lying in the hammock hanging above the rge, double-wide footlocker that stored his equipment when unintelligible whispering came from the other side of his door.

  His eyes closed as he leaned in, fog on the murmurs, trying to decipher them. Suddenly, the door flew open toward him. Startled, he threw himself backwards. But the hammock, being a hammock, swung forward, g out the mahe door missed him by an inch as he filed about. His bunk unceremoniously dumped him onto the footlocker. He nded with a thud and a grunt.

  ‘How’d she open the door?’ he wondered, groaning as he rolled off the ste chest. ‘It was locked.’

  “You’re a refugee?” The wolf-woman gred down, her pierg gaze locked onto him, both cwed hands pnted firmly on her hips.

  Dyn wasn’t sure if that was a question or accusatioher way, the answer was fairly obvious. “Yeah,” he said.

  She huffed, narrowing her eyes. “We’re already on day two of this trip, and this is the first I’m hearing about it? From the crew, no less.” Her gre said it all: this was clearly his fault.

  Dyn shifted slightly under her intense gaze, resisting the urge to look away. Yesterday’s efforts had caught up to him, his body protesting as he repositioned himself to sit up on the footlocker. His legs hurt, his arms hurt, even his fingers and toes hurt. Everything hurt after Wedge worked him over. He’d spent half the day climbing up and down the rigging, falling more times than he could t—and injuring himself badly enough to require Ru’s mending at least a dozen times.

  ‘Or was it two dozen?’ Dyn tried to recall, but it wasn’t perti. He hesitated, measuring his response before answering. “Is… that a problem?”

  Ru looked as if he just spped her. “Is that a problem…”

  Her nostrils fred.

  “Yes, it’s a bloody problem. And now you’re my bloody problem. We’re too far out to turn back without abandoning the quest.”

  She turo walk aaused, and spun ba him with a pointed cwed finger. “I’ve a mind to fine you to your quarters.” Her pierg blue eyes sed his cramped space before log ba to him. Her expression softened, if only a little, repced by a hint of . “How am I supposed to plete this quest while making sure you don’t get hurt?”

  “Now you care if I get hurt?” Dyn asked.

  She exhaled sharply, and after a slow, deep breath, she expined, “Before I overheard the idle gossip of the crew, I thought you were just a guild initiate, like the other three. Well, two…” She waved a hand with a quick shake of her head, brushing away whatever thought had distracted her.

  “I’m allowed to train initiates, to push, break, and remake them inter versions of themselves.” She paused a moment, eg the dots. “I assume Nathan was the oo pick up your tract?”

  Dyn nodded, choosing to remain silent. She wasn’t shouting at him anymore, and he didn’t want to risk setting her off again.

  “I don’t know what he was thinking.” She gave a disapproving shake of her head. “Allowing you to go on this trial in your current state.”

  He knew where this was going, and he wasn’t about to let Nathan take the fall again for his own rash decisions. “He didn’t ‘allow’ me to go on this trial,” he admitted. “Specifically, he told me to wait until the one.”

  “Did he?” she asked.

  Dyn nodded slowly. “I signed myself up, and I feel bad about going behind his back to do it.”

  She looked at him, her gaze shifted, reassessing her previous assumptions, and asked, “Why?”

  Dyn shrugged. “Because it feels like I lied to him.”

  “No—I don’t care about that.” She waved her hand. “Why do you want to be an adventurer?”

  He blihat was a damn good question, ohat he was still figuring out a little more with each passing day. He shrugged and spoke early.

  “Ba Earth, where I e from, there isn’t any magic. You’re born, you live, you struggle, and then you die. And there’s little you do to break that cycle.”

  She gave him an uain look, but held off on asking questions, choosing to wait until he finished.

  “Since I’ve arrived and experienced magiyself, I’ve seen how terrifyingly powerful it is, but I’ve also seen how marvelous it be, too.

  “I’d be dead a few times over if it weren’t fic, but magic was also the reason I needed saving in the first pce. People keep asking why I want to be an advehey don’t get it.” He made a fist. “It’s more than that. I o be an adventurer, and if I’m going to survive, I’ll o know how it all works.”

  Ru shifted her stance, her gaze drifting toward the floor as she pted his words. Finally, her pierg blue eyes rose to meet his, a note of grim determination in her voice. “Then we have a problem.”

  Dyn frowned, worried she’d actually fine him to his quarters, locked in a closet with only fk and a bucket for two weeks—a cruel punishment on so many levels.

  “While I ’t prehend how aire world remains oblivious to magic, I uand the desire, the o be an adventurer.” Her stance rexed as she leaned against the doorframe. “Look, I rarely expin how this works, because it spoil the effect.”

  Dyn gnced side-to-side in his tiny , as if he were in some destiing and about to receive a secret he’d have to take to his grave. He slowly leaned in to listen, careful not to make any noise. Ru arched backwards, ing her o peek into the hallway for eavesdroppers. After firming the coast was clear, she turned ba.

  “I’ve got a passive that is with people under my care. It’s called… Tough Love. y, I know. And I will maim you myself if this gets out to anyone.” She gave him a stern look. “After a time… it grants a perma boon—”

  Dyn cut her off. “What’s a boon?” It sounded like a buff, something he was familiar with from video games.

  “Ask somebody else. Just shut up and listen,” she s the interruption.

  “Sorry.” He lowered his head. “Please tinue.”

  “My boon increases the toughness attribute. The more you know, the less effective it’ll be, but the tougher I am on you before the boon appears, the stro’ll be.”

  Dyn’s mind raced to put it all together, but his mouth still outpaced him, sharing his internal monologue. “Is that why you’re so mean? Wait, why are you telling me? I don’t want to ruin the boon-buffy-thing. Is toughness a stat? What’s my number? How do I see it? Is that why you were mean to Nathan?”

  Ru waited for him to finish his avanche of questions, letting out a small sigh. “Being dired speaking my mind doesn’t make me mean…” Her gaze found its way to the ground again, as if she wished the words could end there. “But it’s also part of the same passive. I speak… bluntly.”

  Sensing she would answer none of his other questions, he said, “Alright. This whole boon-thing sounds pretty great to me. What’s the problem I’m not seeing?”

  “With Nathan back at Nightshade, the responsibilities to ensure your physical aal wellbeing fall to the rest of the members of the guild. Hence why you are now my problem as the leader of this quest. Also, the boon requires a certain,” she searched for the right word, “fri, or it won’t work.”

  He squi her, furrowing his brow. “Are y to say I’m going to get a crappy boon, because my refugee tract says you ’t abuse me?” He watched the muscles in her jaw ch.

  She opened her mouth, then shut it, searg for a way to answer without casting herself in pht. “There won’t be any boon, crappy or otherwise.” She sighed. “But yes, that’s abht.”

  There’s no way he was going to miss out on a perma buff to his toughness over something as trivial as etiquette. “ we pause the tract for a while or something?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “And I’ll have to insist that you remain on the ship for the duration of the trip, which will limit your training and growth.” She saw the devastation on his chubby face.

  “But,” she offered, “that doesn’t mean you’ll fail the trial. I’ll expin to Guildmaster K’hab the circumstances wheurn. It should push things in your favor.”

  Dyn’s shoulders slumped. “Aw, e on. What if I cel the tract? Is that something I do?” He grew more desperate, not just over the boon. He didn’t want to be coddled like some child.

  Ru watched him, noting his disced posture. With a click of her tongue, she offered him another option. “No. But there might be another way around it…” She hesitated, gauging his response.

  His pleading eyes looked up to hers. “Please. I’ll do anything.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Anything?”

  Dyn closed his eyes and sighed. “Is it a sex thing? Because I—”

  “What?! No!” she said, her voice filled with a mix of horror and disgust. “Mother no.” She leaoward him, l her voice to ask, “Is that… a thing? Do you trade favors for mating on Dirt?”

  He took a breath, slowly exhaling through his puffed cheeks as he debated how to respond. “That’s… a really plicated question to answer,” he admitted out loud. Not that he had an issue with sex work; it just wasn’t something he’d be fortable doing.

  She crossed her arms. “Either way, that’s not how we do things at Nightshade. Also… you’re far too smooth and round for my tastes,” she said, shaking off the remnants of revulsion.

  ‘Thank God,’ he thought.

  She cleared her throat. “There may be another way, but it’ll e at a cost.”

  Dyn thought about how Nathan had paid for everything since he’d arrived. “How much? I don’t have any money. Nathan—”

  Ru held up a hand to stop him. “It doesn’t involve gems, credits, or… mating. I have a way to force myself to ignore yee status, resume your training, and allow you to take part in your trial.” She pushed off the door frame and lowered into a squat to match Dyn’s level.

  “Before you say no, you wouldn’t be in any more harm thaher initiates, as I’ve no iion of letting anyone die under my and. However, you couldn’t ge your mind afterward. It would be immutable.” She let her words sink in, watg him ily.

  A tightlipped smile formed on his face as he awkwardly held her gaze, silently waiting for her to mention any real drawback. When he didn’t protest or ask questions, she tinued.

  “You have two choices. Enjoy the safety of the ship and rex for the rest of this trip, which is what I’d reend. You’d still pass the trial, most likely, and there’d be almost no risk involved.”

  Dyn shook his head, already dismissing that option even before hearing the other.

  She gnced back over her shoulder again, l her voice. “Or… ask me to ignore your tract, resume your training, and bring you on the quest.”

  Dyn didn’t uand what she meant. “Ask?”

  “I’ll expin in a minute, but even if you join the quest, that won’t guarantee an invitation to Nightshade, and this trip will be much more… unfortable.”

  He held up a finger, wanting to make sure he uood. “This is what I’m hearing. My choices are between an all expenses paid cruise, or abusive training to improve my body and mind, experience from a dangerous quest, and a perma boon-thingy to my toughness?”

  “Yes.”

  Dyn narrowed his eyes. “Does the boon e with a really cool tattoo?”

  Taken aback by the random question, she paused, narrowing her eyes at him. “No…”

  Dyn sighed, snapping his fingers. “Bummer. But I’m still going with the sed option.”

  An approving smile slid up her muzzle. “I agree. The path of greater resistance offers far more rewards in the end.” She gave him an affirming nod. “So, I’m going to help you.”

  Her smile was tagious, and his excitement grew. “Awesome. How does it work?”

  “I hope you paid attention when Guildmaster K’hab spoke before we left. I’m trusting you with very personal information. It’s important that you uand whiowledge is yours to keep and yours to share.”

  “I uand.” He made a lod key gesture over his lips. “Your secrets are safe with me.”

  Ru appeared as she wao correething he just said but decided it was close enough. “Oathbound is another of my passives. I ’t break a promise. So, if you’re sure about this, ask me to promise to ignore yee status until the end of the trip.”

  She held up a finger before Dyn could open his mouth and said, “But don’t do it just yet. I don’t want to catch the team by surprise. We’ll announce our pact at the meeting, so everyone is on the same tablet.”

  She left his doorway, a orunk, unsure if he was supposed to follow her or wait.

  The answer came a few mier as he ulling on a fresh shirt. A loud voice spoke from the upper er of his . At first, it looked like a speaker, but upon closer iion, it was a fist-sized rock mouo the wall.

  “All passengers are requested to gather for an immediate meeting in the Captain’s Quarters,” First Mate Echo’s voice said. The message repeated, and then the rock went silent.

  Dyn had learhat the Captain’s Quarters wasn’t actually where Captain Echo slept; it was simply more iing than calling it the “meeting room.” He stepped into the dimly lit hallway, hearing the creaks of doors and grumbles of half-awake voices as others emerged from their s.

  “What time is it?” “Have we arrived?” “Need… mana-tea.” “What’s this about?” These murmurs echoed through the dim hallway as the Nightshade crew sluggishly shuffled toward the stairs leading to the top deck.