It was a short walk back to the market, made only slightly longer by having to slow his pace down to account for Rue having significantly shorter legs. The pair walked in silence for a minute or so until they were far enough away from camp that Sorin wasn’t worried about being overheard.

  “So?” he asked.

  “Don’t get the wrong idea. This has almost nothing to do with you,” she said. “It’s to give them some time alone.”

  “I believe that’s part of it, but you didn’t need to wait for me to get back to accomplish that.”

  “It was a good excuse,” Rue told him. “Not much more to it. I’m just going to pick up some basic supplies for our next climb. I don’t think any of us were expecting to head back out so soon, and definitely not for this long.”

  It didn’t seem like she was lying, but he was still suspicious. On the other hand, if she doesn’t want to say, then I don’t have to deal with it.

  They walked in silence until they reached the edge of the portal hub. “There was a guy in the northeast market selling soulprints yesterday. He seemed… desperate,” Rue said. “Not sure if he’s still there, but he had a lot of stock, so probably. You might be able to get a good deal there.”

  After getting a description of the merchant and his booth, Sorin headed into the market square while Rue disappeared into the crowd. Something was definitely going on there, and he doubted it was just giving the other half of their team some alone time. There didn’t seem to be much need for it, anyway. Unless they were significantly better at hiding their feelings than Sorin gave either of them credit for, he doubted anything was happening back at camp.

  So, what’s the game? I don’t think it’s any sort of betrayal, not unless Rue has some personal agenda.

  Sorin found the merchant’s stall easily enough. Rue hadn’t been exaggerating about his stock either. There were a dozen soulprints sitting on the table in front of him and two bulging sacks tied closed beneath it. Most of the merchants with soulprints had five or six, at most. If those sacks weren’t full of other supplies, this guy had at least thirty.

  “Hello,” Sorin said as he approached.

  “Good afternoon,” the merchant replied, his eyes lighting up slightly.

  Good tip, Rue. This guy’s desperate for a sale.

  The merchant wasn’t so bad at his job that his eyes lingered on any part of Sorin, except perhaps for the purse hanging from his belt, but it was easy enough to recognize a climber. Beyond the fact that everyone here had to be at least rank 1 just to reach the portal hub, well over half of them were armed and wearing some sort of backpack.

  “What can I help you find today?” the man asked, his mustache almost quivering with anticipation.

  “I’m mostly just looking around,” Sorin lied, “seeing what’s on the market today.”

  “And a fine market it is,” the merchant agreed easily. “But I’m sure that whatever ability you’re looking to find, I have something that’s up to the task.”

  “Perhaps,” Sorin said. “I’m interested in utility, defensive, or possibly healing soulprints.”

  “Now that is something I can definitely help you with.”

  With that, the merchant began sorting his table, shifting some of the objects off to the side and fetching new ones from one of his two sacks. Most of them were imbued monster parts, which made up the vast majority of soulprints on the lower floors. It was rare to see a tower-gifted object down here, and rarer still for any climbers to have room in their soulspace for the abilities that would allow them to craft a soulprint, even if they could get ahold of one.

  In the next few floors, that would start to change. People would have their basics covered, and they’d start looking at ways to supplement their gains from climbing. Rather than add a redundant soulprint that gave them another unneeded way to kill monsters, they’d turn to a wide variety of utility soulprints available in hopes of making some money.

  Whoever this merchant was, he obviously had some connections higher up. His soulspace felt like it was rank 2, which wasn’t uncommon by any means. Probably some sort of merchant family. He’s kind of young, though. Early twenties, maybe. I’m guessing… given a few sacks of merchandise and tasked with selling it as quickly as possible while still making an acceptable profit. Judging by how much stock he’s got left, things aren’t going well.

  Perfect.

  The merchant brought out various trinkets and imbued monster parts, everything from claws, quills, teeth, bones, and fur to man-made objects like coins, rings, pins, buttons, and laces. More importantly, the merchant produced a small, finger-sized bar of iron vaguely carved into the shape of a human—the Iron Body soulprint he wanted.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  He professed interest in a few other objects, one of which he actually was considering buying as well, even though he didn’t have room yet for two soulprints. It was a piece of skin with red lines in a vein-like pattern, though they looked more like they’d been tattooed on. It was a Minor Regeneration soulprint, exactly what Sorin wanted for his future career as a solo-climber.

  Sorin didn’t consider himself to be an adept haggler, but this merchant was both inexperienced and desperate. Counterbalancing that was the unfamiliar currency and Sorin’s still spotty understanding of how much things were worth in danirs. He thought he got a pretty good deal for both soulprints in the end at ninety danirs, but based on the merchant’s apparent smugness, he might have overpaid.

  Sorin stashed both objects away and started walking back to camp. It was no great surprise when Rue popped out of the crowds and fell into step with him almost the second he left the hub, though he hadn’t seen a trace of her the whole time he’d been haggling. It was only as he was making his way back to camp that he’d spotted her slipping past the other climbers to intercept him.

  “You’re not as subtle as you think you are,” he said.

  She smirked at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Whatever the game was, he was starting to get annoyed now. “Seriously, what do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything,” she said. “But if anyone asks, I was with you the whole time.”

  “Why? Where were you really?”

  “None of your business.”

  “Then why should I lie for you?” he asked.

  “Fine. I’ll tell you what I was up to if you tell me why your soulspace holds more anima than a rank 3 climber.”

  Wait, what? It does?

  Sorin hadn’t been rank 1 in forty years. It hadn’t crossed his mind that his anima capacity was anything abnormal, but now that she’d pointed it out, Rue was probably right. The only real comparison he had was Nemari, and while he’d been attributing the difference in their throughput to a lack of efficiency on her part, that wasn’t the only possible explanation.

  It had to be related to the mosaic in his soulspace. He’d examined it thoroughly as recently as last night, but it hadn’t occurred to him that it would be holding anima. He simply hadn’t remembered how much anima a rank 1 had and had assumed his own reserves were normal.

  There was no reason to tell Rue any of that, however. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “But, whatever. You were nearby the whole time if anyone asks. Not sure why they would, though.”

  They didn’t speak any more on that matter. Instead, Rue asked, “Are you going to bail once we finish this next climb?”

  Sorin shrugged. “Maybe. Nemari’s not really my favorite person right now.”

  “She’s scared,” Rue said. “Not necessarily of you, though you are a scary motherfucker, but that the next time something goes wrong, people are going to die.”

  “She’d better get over it or retire. Things go wrong all the time. Reacting to that is a huge part of what being a climber is.”

  “That’s why you’re pushing for the rounded toolkits instead of everyone specializing?”

  “Yeah. The sooner you get started, the better. Ripping out soulprints after you’ve had them for a while, even if you aren’t feeding them anima, is a bitch. It’s not so bad at the lower ranks, but it can be fatal once you’ve climbed higher.”

  “You know, I don’t get you,” Rue said. “You say shit like this all the time. It’s obvious you know a lot about climbing at the higher floors. But you don’t want to tell us what happened. According to Nemari, your soulspace losing ranks and floor attunements is impossible, so it must be something else.”

  Sorin let out a weary sigh. “I don’t know what happened. I’ve got some guesses, but none of them explain everything. But it’s my business and no one else’s. I’m trying to keep the three of you alive, so maybe just accept the advice and stop pestering me about my past.”

  “Hard to take advice from someone so shifty,” she said lightly.

  “Fine, do whatever you want. You’re probably right, anyway. This will be our last climb together. Once we reach rank 2, I’ll have enough soulspace to cover the bare minimum to solo climb.”

  The teenager missed a step there, but she hustled to catch up to Sorin. “Are you fucking crazy? I mean, you’re good, but nobody’s that good. How will you sleep if there’s no one to keep watch? What happens when some monster tribe ambushes you and it’s twenty to one?”

  “Those are all very good reasons to climb with a team, but I don’t suspect I’ll have one by this time next week. I’ll just have to be careful and make sure I know what I’m getting into before I set foot on floor 2.”

  They were only a few hundred feet from the camp now. Rue grabbed Sorin’s arm to stop him and said, “What if… What if it was just Od and me?”

  It wasn’t unusual for teams to break apart as people grew. Sometimes someone died or retired. Sometimes fights tore them apart. Sometimes, it was as simple as climbers growing their builds in incompatible ways that drove them to seek new companions who better complemented their abilities.

  “You’d cut Nemari from the team?” Sorin asked. Maybe I overestimated how close they are.

  “It’s not that I want to, but if it comes down to it… No offense to her, but you’re a better climber. I need to get stronger. I need to see higher floors. If this is what it takes to make that happen, I’ll do it.”

  “What if your brother doesn’t feel the same way?”

  Rue hesitated, then shook her head. “I’ll find a way to convince him.”

  I don’t think either of us believes that. Fuck me, but I do not need this kind of shit in my life.

  “I’ll consider it,” Sorin said. “It would be best not to mention this while we’re climbing. It’ll be a distraction that could get someone killed. The last thing we need is for the team to splinter in the middle of a tense situation.”

  Maybe it’d be better to just call this climb off, Sorin thought to himself as he watched Rue nod. We’re already splintering as it is. But if I don’t do this climb, I’ll be back to looking for a new team again. Who knows how long that’ll take? And I need to climb, to get stronger. I need to see the rest of that mosaic and figure out what happened.

  Once we kill the floor guardian, I’ll have the soulspace to be fully self-sufficient. Then I can just turn Rue’s offer down and take care of this myself. It’s just one more week. I can hold this team together that long.

  Sorin started walking back to camp again. Mutely, Rue followed along behind him.