Nar would’ve preferred to be back aboard the Scimitar, bleeding out on that sand covered arena from another one of Tys’ torturous sessions, than to spend another second in the Dream.

  After witnessing Era’s quest come to its conclusion, the Dream seemed to have found a way in at last. Something to hold onto, some form of hope, no matter how mad it was. That aether wormed its way into his mind, as insidiously as the roots of the dream flowers and the pale trees dug into their slumbering and unaware victims.

  Even a day after they’d left the Pond of Tranquility, the corners of his sight continued to warble and shift as he walked, swaying under black and white blurry spots that he knew weren’t there. Neither was there anything wrong with his [Sight], or his eyes, his HP showing as full.

  That black and white reminded him of the bright whites and pitch black of his ever-shifting gray aura, but with the utter and stark absence of the gray that dominated the growing sphere of light that inhabited his core. They tugged at his memory too, but no matter how much he scratched at his brain, he couldn’t remember why it felt so familiar.

  At all hours of the day, even above the hubbub of conversation, or even when spoken to directly, Nar now always heard the dim, distant, and dissonant scream of many voices, and the muffled thud of heavy things he could not name falling and shattering around him.

  In his dreams, the white and black fought, ravaging Creation and those who dared to block his path as much as they fought each other. And the screaming… It was deafening, and a burning heat embraced him so intensely that it was as though he was back under that distant Pressure once more. His skin flayed layer by layer. His muscles scorched and his bones blackened and ground to dust.

  Through it all, his own voice, repeating the same words again and again, in a strangely calm and monotonous cadence.

  Promise me that you will wait.

  Promise me that you will wait.

  Promise me…

  Nar came to with a gasp.

  He patted himself blindly, seeking burned, ulcerated flesh with trembling fingers. Piece by slow piece, his sense of self came to the fore. It was the smooth touch of a jungle suit that he felt under his fingertips, and there was no more howling coming from his tortured body.

  The air inside the tent tasted stale, but it enveloped him like a blanket, seeking to pull him back under the influence of the [Dreaming]. Resisting its alluring call, he fought to ease his ragged breathing, forcing his shoulders to drop. He was drenched inside his suit, and the stretchy material was disgustingly clinging to his skin.

  Fucking Pile… Nar thought, passing a hand through his wet hair. He had to fight the pull of sleep even now, and he still heard the echoes of his dream. If he closed his eyes, he would go right back to that fever nightmare of death and destruction.

  Kur groaned beside him, his face contorted by whatever nightmare held the party leader in its sway. He shifted ponderously to lay on his side, pulling up his long legs from bulging against their slightly too short tent.

  Beyond the altei, Nar spotted similar expressions on Jaz, Lim and Jasphaer’s faces. And on the opposite side of the tent, Tun muttered and huffed, throwing his face right and left as he grunted unintelligible words under his breath, no doubt seeing whoever it was that he’d killed, back in his cubeplant.

  Nar took a deep breath.

  Probably shouldn't have tried to stuff six of us in here, he thought. He pulled up his UI to check the time. 04:28 AM.

  It was late. Or, maybe, too early. He should go back to sleep and try to rest as best as he could, since in the morning, they would cross into the Giants’ Canopy at last. According to both Leon and Calli, as well as their guides, the battles that awaited them there would be unlike anything they’d faced thus far, with the exception of the Thorn Hydra.

  The Giants’ Canopy was not only aptly named for the immense trees that made up its landscape, but also for the sizable beasts that made it their home. Discounting the War Quest, which elevated either the Gloom or the Land of the Atlatl to level 70, the Canopy was the highest leveled area in the entire Brightnight, with a level range between 65 and 70. It also sported the highest concentration of uncommon and rare enemies outside of the War Quest.

  Leon and Sej both had promised them immense gains, tokens, and XP to fill their party funds with, but those rewards wouldn’t come without a fight. And that was all without even mentioning Mach’s quest, supposedly the hardest of the three.

  The wind and storm aethermancer needed help in sneaking into a huge den of giant, flying winged-serpents, the aelix they were called, in order to steal an egg to bond with. Like Mul, although intentionally in his case, Mach wanted to build a bonded path with a companion beast. Also unlike Mul, the winged-serpent that would hatch from the stolen egg would match his stormy aether perfectly.

  The issue with getting said egg was that it lay deep within a den, and some of those winged-serpents could grow to be 160-feet long…

  “Yeah, you heard it right,” Mach said. He rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced at the smothering silence that hAd enveloped the tent.

  This had been back at the pebble shore, and Nar had stared at the aethermancer with an expression that was half-wide-eyed shock and half-confused disbelief.

  A hundred and sixty? Isn’t that bigger than that machine we fought in the Ceremony? Nar thought, his next bite of that vile tree mollusk soup forgotten halfway to his open mouth.

  “A hundred and sixty?” Mul said, his voice registering true, unsuppressed shock. “Are you fucking kidding with me?”

  “No,” Mach said, dropping his head.

  “How many are we talking about?” Kur asked, blinking at the vanore, as though his brain was still catching up.

  “About five for the biggest ones,” Mach said, glancing at Sej for confirmation. “Ehrm, give or take, of course! The spawn number varies a bit, so it could be as high as… nine.”

  “Nine!” Jaz shouted. “Fucking Pile! That sounds worse than the damned hydra!”

  “They won’t be as strong as that,” Leon said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “And the plan isn’t to fight them! We just need to sneak in, grab an egg, and run for it. Though, before you ask, Mach needs to be the one to pick up the egg and bring it outside of the den. Neither Medis nor Jul can just [Stealth] in and snatch it…”

  His voice withered under the combined stare of the two auramancer parties.

  “If it helps make it better, Mach’s patron knew that this quest was going to require help, so everyone that helps will be rewarded by his patron through the System,” Leon said. “So, even as auramancers you’ll get a bunch of amazing gains!”

  Oh? Nar thought. He didn’t want to feel callous, and selfish, but that did sweeten it.

  “What do you think?” Kur asked their blue skinned guide.

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  “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s definitely a lot easier said than done,” Sej said, frowning. “Those serpents have good senses… They’ve got phenomenal [Sight] for flying and hunting at such high speeds of course, though thankfully, these are diurnal serpents, so no [Thermal Sight] on them. And they can feel vibrations through their body, so don’t expect to just sneak up on them. But the biggest concern is their [Smell]. It’s crazy boosted by their [Serpentine Taste]. They can literally taste scents. One of those giants can tell what you had for breakfast from a mile away.”

  Leon and Mach squirmed further as the collective staring re-doubled.

  “You’ve got the XP for it, so I’m assuming you did your research?” the guide asked.

  Mach nodded effusively. “Yes! The spiny rats!”

  “Uh?” Mul, Jaz, and Lim said in unison.

  “Rats?” Tuk asked.

  “The aelix are huuuuge!” Mach said, stretching out his feathered arms with an exaggerated expression. “Maintaining themselves healthy in a jungle is a massive undertaking. So, they get a little help… The spiny rats!”

  “What in the Pile are you on about?” Mul said. “I don’t know much about snakes and rats, but one of them usually eats the other, no?”

  “Usually yes,” Sej continued, when Mach turned a pleading stare to her. “But the aelix and the spiny rats maintain a symbiotic relationship. The rats maintain and build their nests, they remove rotten or injured scales from places the winged-serpents can’t reach, and even parasites that burrow under their scales. The rats also serve as lookouts for the nest, even helping feed their young, which start their lives as tiny, tiny serpents not much bigger than Gad.”

  “That’s still pretty damned big,” Jaz muttered, earning himself an elbow from Row.

  “Yes, but they can’t move that well for the first couple of months. It takes some time for their spines and main wing bones to continue fully developing outside the egg, so the rats take care of them. As you can expect, it’s not exactly easy for a 100-foot-long serpent to properly care for an 8-foot baby,” Sej said.

  “I thought snakes didn’t care for their young?” Row asked.

  “The vast majority don't, but these wind serpents are a little different. And a lot smarter,” the guide explained.

  “Hence why I want to bond with one!” Mach said, grinning like an excited child.

  “Where are you even going to keep a 160-foot-long serpent in the Nexus?” Teb asked him.

  “Inside my reservoir! Like Mul does with Wolfie,” Mach beamed. “There’s no size limit, you know?”

  “Uh, that’s convenient,” the quam warrior said.

  “Anyways, in exchange for their services, the aelix protects the spiny rats from all other beasts in the canopy. In fact, the rat burrows are located within the same tree as the aelix’s nest,” Sej said. “I’m guessing you plan to smear yourselves in rat shit, sneak in pretending to be rats, then cause chaos in the rat’s nest in order to distract the serpents if you get caught on your way out.”

  “Uh… pretty much?” Leon said, Mach staring open mouthed at the guide.

  Sej chuckled at them. “I’ve been delving into this jungle for five years, and even though I’ve never even gone anywhere near the aelix nest, I’ve heard the stories. Which is why I can tell you right now that your plan is not going to work.”

  “Really? On the 2NET it was ranked as the one with the highest chance of success,” Mach said, frowning at her. “It was even reviewed by a local delver too!”

  “You can’t trust everything you read online. The way the pros do it is always with [Stealth], and even that carries huge risks,” Sej said, shaking her head. “While the rats are weak common beasts who only survive in the Canopy thanks to the serpent’s protection, once they spot you, and they will, no matter how much shit you smear on, they will raise the alarm. You will never get through the fifty or so adult aelix that come down to protect them. Especially the matriarchs. Even if they don’t fit into the burrows, they'll just wait for you to come outside… And you can’t fight a couple thousand rats either.”

  “I did doubt, to be honest,” Calli said, glaring at both Leon and Mach. “I told you it was too good to be true! Ugh! You three are always like that!”

  “What did I do?” Eum asked.

  “Zip it! You were on their side!”

  “Well, we had no other alternative,” Leon muttered, and Nar winced in sympathy at the trio under Calli’s baleful glare.

  The strategist sighed and pinched her nose bridge. “So, what do we do then? Is it impossible?”

  “It’s not impossible, since we have these many strong delvers… But not exactly straightforward either,” Sej said. “But hold that thought for now. Imagining that we do get that egg somehow, then what? Are you bonding it right there and then? Or are you taking it back home to do it? Or, and please tell me you don’t, but do you need to climb up to that place?”

  “We need to go to Where The Winds Meet!” Mach declared, his eyes shining brightly.

  Sej blinked at him. At her side, Sarke burst out laughing, and she laughed and laughed, doubled over and holding her stomach.

  “Are you guys crazy?” Sej whispered, her eyes wide. “You need to go there? Really?”

  “Oh, boy,” Mul said with a sigh. “What now?”

  “Where The Winds Meet is the tallest tree in the Giant’s Canopy,” Row said. “At its top, as the name suggests, there is an extremely windy location, filled with wind aether…”

  “The Altar of Winds,” Mach whispered in a reverent hush.

  Row nodded.

  “And? What’s protecting it?” Gad asked, already guessing where the conversation was headed.

  “The Lord of the Giant’s Canopy,” the red-haired party leader said. “The strongest of all the lords of the jungle. Plus its herd.”

  “Wow,” Nar said.

  “Wait! We have something to lure him away!” Leon shouted, before anyone could speak. “We don’t plan on fighting him!”

  “What about the rest of the giant gorillas?” Sej shouted back.

  “Isn’t there only twenty or so of them?” Eum asked.

  The guide glared at him. “Outside of the War Quest, the silver fist gorillas are the strongest beasts in the whole Brightnight! This quest is suicidal! And can’t you just buy the egg anyways?”

  “I… can’t,” Mach whispered, looking down.

  “That’s—”

  “Sej,” Sarke said, squeezing her shoulder.

  The blue skinned guide blew a heavy sigh and hid her face in her clasped hands.

  “Stealing the egg without [Stealth] is already insane enough,” she said. “But to have to climb up to the Altair of Winds too for the bonding? That’s just—”

  “Sej, enough,” Sarke said.

  “I know that we are asking for much from all of you, after you’ve already saved us,” Calli said, her tone low in the heavy silence that weighed upon the tent. “Right now, we can’t even offer you anything in repayment for such an insane request as to help us with all three quests we must complete, especially this one. But, if you help us realize the single most important milestone in Mach’s path and future, I vow that we will owe you one. A big one, and that it will be repaid.”

  A debt to these rich heirs? Nar thought. That wouldn’t be bad, would it?

  He glanced towards Kur, and even though his party leader’s expression remained neutral, there was a certain intensity to his stare. The kind Nar had grown to recognize when the leader he followed and believed was weighing up their future, and making a decision.

  We do need friends in high places, don’t we? Nar thought. And that means we should help them. As callous as that sounds, like we're using them, we need to be realistic in this new reality outside of the B-Nex.

  “There’s no need to decide right away, is there?” Kur spoke, his calm tone cutting through the silence. “For now, we’ll head there, making the changes to our itinerary as planned. Once we arrive, we can think of a proper plan. Plus, Sej can decide whether or not she thinks we’re strong enough to do it when we get there, just like it was with the uncommon and the dens before.”

  The tall altei worded it with just enough of an inflection to spin it as a question, and Sej offered him a small, almost imperceptible nod.

  Experienced guide or not, we just came from a crazy situation that almost got us all killed, Nar thought. She can’t be all too happy about bringing Sarke into that kind of situation again.

  “That is fair,” Calli said, leaning forward with a sparkle to her glowing eyes. “As Leon said, Mach’s patron has been very generous, and if you accept his quest to help him, the rewards will be quite substantial. Even better than what you received from the [Survive the Fall] quest! And especially if you can help us with both parts of the quest, the egg heist, and the bonding atop Where the Winds Meet.”

  Damn, Nar thought, unable to keep his eyebrows from raising. That’s not the kind of gains you’d just ignore, is it?

  Kur sighed but he nodded. “Let’s proceed as planned for now. Once we reach the aelix nest, we will decide then.”

  Now, weeks later, and much stronger than back then, Nar pulled himself upright in his inflatable mattress. His eyes were fully open now, and his heart beat a steady and alert rhythm. He was free of the dream aether’s clutches for now, and in no rush to go back to it.

  I’ll just sleep tomorrow, he decided, as he quietly got into a crouching position. Let’s just see if there’s someone out there who wants to go to sleep. I might as well get some training done, as I doubt we won’t be heading into that serpent’s nest.

  He slipped out of the tent, doing his best not to wake any of the others…

  “Eh?” he grunted, coming to a startled halt when a pair of legs blocked his sight.

  Looking up, he found a pair of frosty white eyes staring down at him, a light smile adorning alluring, yet sleepy features.

  “Can’t sleep?” Era whispered.

  His heartbeat hammering at the surprise, he shook his head.

  “Walk with me, Nar,” Era said, her tone as dreamy as usual and betraying nothing.

  She sauntered towards the exit, and Nar looked from her back to the small gathering of delvers that were on watch. Playing cards were frozen mid-turn and all eyes were focused either on Era or him.

  Nar caught Leon’s eye and the paladin gave him a quick jerk of his head, half between a nod and a “go after her now” sort of gesture.

  Scrambling to his feet, he rushed to where Era was holding the flap of the tent open for him to come through.