Eli woke up startled and jumped to his feet in a panic, but he was still in his stone teepee and the only people around were Bethany, Stacy, and Umber, medium sized and sleeping in the back of the teepee hiding from the sun. It took him a good while to remember what he was doing and where he was, but he knew instantly who Bethany and Umber were. No one said anything, they waited patiently for him to get his head on straight since he was clearly shaken by something. He was covered in sweat and shaking a bit, Bethany looked the most concerned because she had never seen him sweat before or even look like he was struggling. She put her hand on his shoulder for support, not physical support, but emotional, wanting him to know that she was there for him.

  “You are Bethany,” Eli said, then looked at Umber. “You are Umber.” he said, then looked at Stacy. “I don’t know you.”

  Bethany held up a hand to stop Stacy from speaking, “what happened my love, you were sleeping for over a week.”

  “A week? I was trapped in some kind of eternal fight that slowly transformed me into what I was fighting.”

  “Eternal? As in you don't know how long? Or…” Bethany trailed off, fearing the worst. He was fragile before, but if he got stuck in some kind of vision or scenario where he was fighting for so long that he forgot who Stacy was, he could break.

  “It’s all blurred together, I need some time to settle my mind.” Eli sat on the platform he had made with his legs crossed and began to meditate.

  Seeing that he was essentially healthy, at least physically, Bethany didn’t tell him about the problem heading their way. They had been staying at Eli’s stone teepee for most of the last week, only spending two days in the sink-hole forest. When they came back up he was unconscious, covered in sweat and tense. Stacy was worried thinking that her plan of raising herself up from mediocrity was falling apart, but Bethany assured her that everything would be fine. Their connection led her to believe that he was having some kind of dream where he was fighting but that he was fine, it was a guess but she said that this was part of his skill upgrade.

  The problem heading their way was from the safe zone north of them, about 12 people were heading towards them. They didn’t know if they were headed in their direction for them or for the raid dungeon, but Stacy let slip that the other girl in her former group was a cousin or some relative of one of the lords. With that information, it was probable that they weren’t going to take the women like they thought, just fake some kind of attack, then report that they had barely survived while protecting the other girl. Probably to get in good with the local lord, maybe even get a servant role.

  Umber wasn’t very useful during the day, her abilities and even her size and physical strength were weakened by the sun or even light magic. Unless Eli could get himself together in time, Bethany was going to have a tough fight ahead of her. She just hoped they wouldn’t arrive until the sun went down. Stacy said that there were rumors that one of the three lords up north had past level 100 and was still going. The lords were almost never seen and their people would always say that they were training, leaving one in the city at a time so that they could train and grow while maintaining control. So she was potentially going to face someone over level 100 with lots of back-up by herself.

  Checking on her connection to Eli, Bethany could feel his magic relaxing, but slowly. She couldn’t tell how long it was going to take but there was hope that he might be able to help. Their time in the contained forest had been fruitful, Stacy had gained several levels getting into the eighties and Bethany had caught up to Eli. Umber had gained the most, massively growing in strength and capability, but only Eli could see her level. She was a creature of shadow magic, and among the uses of shadow magic, obfuscation is one of its more common uses. Umber’s presence couldn’t be felt magically and she could hide herself entirely in shadows and dampen any sound she makes.

  While waiting, Bethany was doing some slow movement practice with her spear. She found it relaxing to let her weapon skill guide her in her movements, perfecting her reflexes and form. After several hours she sat down in front of Eli with her spear in her lap and began to meditate as well. Stacy wasn’t really sure how they meditated so she just went for a walk around the edge of the sink-hole. She didn’t go far, just wanted to clear her head and get her thoughts settled, after seeing what Ash was going through, she better understood what he meant by resolve. She had only seen pieces of his power and he was stronger than she thought people could get, she began speaking to herself out loud in an attempt to figure out how she felt about all of this.

  “Ok Stacy, you have gotten yourself in another mess. But you can do this, you can figure this out. Ash and Bethany seem nice despite being insanely powerful super beings with more magic than I knew existed. But that's a good thing, they seem willing to teach me.” Stacy turned around and started heading back. “But now strong people are coming and they weren’t sure if Bethany could hold them off until Ash had recovered from… whatever he was recovering from. If I’m with them, I’ll be attacked too, and I’m sure Gwen will make sure I’m killed.” She turned again and started walking away from them again.

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  “So the choice I have to make is whether or not I think they can survive what is coming. They probably can, but do I want to risk my life on a probably?” She replayed the conversations she had had with Ash in her mind. She stopped walking and replayed them again. “Resolve.” she tapped her chin, then recognized it as something that Ash had done, but not something she had ever done while thinking. “I admire him.” She said in sudden realization. “Not his power, but the man, he is a deep thinker, but talks about it with others as equals. As if anyone could have an answer to what troubles his thoughts.” she tapped her chin in thought again, realized she was doing it and smiled to herself.

  “If I follow him, it has to be real, it has to be worth my life. If I don’t treat it like it is, he won’t see the resolve and I’ll be relegated to a nothing position or dropped from his group entirely. So the choice is, what do I want, and is it worth my life?” She was quiet for some time, seemingly unable to form a coherent thought about what she wanted. “Ok, so I don’t know what I want. Before all this, I just wanted bigger movie roles, bigger paychecks, and to not have half of ‘B-movie’ Hollywood thinking I was a joke or an easy lay if I got cast. If I pretend that my previous life didn’t exist and that I only just started life after the world ended, what choices have I made that might give me a clue.”

  While in thought remembering everything, she absentmindedly turned around and was walking back towards Ash. “During the tutorial, I tried to adapt, tried to be strong, but my abilities seemed weaker than others. Eventually, I flirted with a guy who got me into a group so that I could level and get a class. He tried his best, but I didn’t sleep with him. One thing I promised myself when getting this fresh start was that I would only sleep with a guy I loved from now on.” Suddenly, without her prompting, the image of Ash naked popped into her mind. She stopped walking and got a chill up her spine, a good feeling kind of chill. She shook her head and forced her mind to get back on track.

  “Then when the tutorial ended I met Gwen and she kept me around. She liked that I used to be famous and that she thought she was prettier than me. I stuck around because it made life easy, we took a relaxing pace at leveling and always had a comfortable place to sleep along with anything else we needed. But I wasn’t happy, comfort and fake friends is what I had before and it didn’t make me happy.” her walking pace sped up a little as she kept thinking out loud. “I was happy to see Umber get summoned, I was happy during the tutorial when I first used a spell and even sparring with Bethany made me happy. Getting to see her use magic was amazing. I think magic makes me happy. Following Ash is my best bet to see wondrous magic and maybe even use it myself.”

  “Ok so now I know that following him is most likely my best choice, probably. If magic makes me happy, I need him to want to take me as an apprentice. If I am by his side all the time, I know I’ll get to see and learn magic that we can’t even comprehend now. But how do I do that? If I say I’ll join, but complain about not being his apprentice, that won't show resolve.” Her walking pace slowed as she thought more. “Ok, what if I tell him I want to be his apprentice without joining the group, only work for and be trained by him. That should work, as long as Bethany doesn’t think I’m trying to steal him away.”

  “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that.” Bethany said standing right in front of her. If she hadn’t spoken up, Stacy would have run right into her.

  “Eep!” Stacy made a scared little noise without realizing it, but she refocused quickly. “I mean, how much did you hear?”

  “We can talk later, need you to come back to Ash, I can’t protect you out here.” Bethany said as she put her hand on Stacy’s back and started pushing her along.

  They got back quickly and it looked just like when she had left, no one was attacking and Ash was still meditating. He looked better, he wasn’t sweating and his body was relaxed. Some tension that she had been carrying in her shoulders without even realizing it released and she took a deep breath. After a few moments, she sat on the ground with Bethany.

  “You made it seem urgent that I come back, what's going on?” Stacy asked, somewhat relieved to be talking to someone other than herself.

  “Ash said they were getting close and told me to get you, if you hadn’t decided to leave us. I heard enough of the conversation you were having with yourself to know that you were staying so I brought you back.” Bethany explained.

  “So we just sit here and wait to be attacked?" Stacy asked.

  “No, he sent one of his root avatars to mess with them and slow them down. It left a while ago, I wonder if it's still kicking?”

  “Is that like another summon?”

  “No, it's a conjure spell that uses life magic to make it similar to a living thing he can give orders to. They only live for a few hours, at least they used to. A lot of his magic is still untested since he became a transcendent so we don’t know what the changes will be.”

  “How long do you think the avatar will last?” Stacy asked.

  “Well it runs faster than you, it should have reached the people coming by now, and he hasn’t made a new one yet, so it could be awhile.”

  There was a bit of a pause then Stacy said sheepishly, “About what you heard, when I was talking to myself, I didn’t…” She was cut off when Bethany interrupted her.

  “Nothing to worry about kid, I’m not his wife, she is back at home, I’m more of a mistress I guess if I had to put a label on it. And if he wanted you in that way, it wouldn’t really hurt my feelings. But there are two things I’ll warn you about in case you ever did want to try and go down that road. First, you will be sharing him with us, that's unavoidable. Second, it's not something you get to change your mind on, if he lets you into his heart, you're there til death.” Bethany explained in a very serious tone.