I drew my foot back to kick a stray pebble which was in my way. Some part of me recoiled in glee as it skittered forward against the force of the metal tip of my boots, eventually coming to stop behind Mirani's foot.

"Don't move about without thought, Seline," came the adventurer's stern remark. Since we separated from the main group, she hasn't looked back to check on us. Not even once. Did she rely on purely her instincts in keeping track of every movement around her?

I crossed my arms but didn't bother expending energy to do anything more. Besides, she had a point. I shouldn't be moving around too much since we're technically on the nether beasts' territory by now.

Just that I wasn't in the best moods since this morning before we even broke camp. Yesterday was one of those days—one where I wasn't sure if sucky or suckier. Getting paired up with Rin—sorry, Kora—and being expected to get something done had been the worst punishment the heavens could devise for me. If our lives from the real world haven't been enough proof of what we could accomplish together, I didn't know what else would.

But it's not like people in Solarlume would understand, much less if we didn't tell them. People here probably find love and stay in it for hundreds of years hence until they die. They wouldn't understand what it's like to have that hope, that sense of security, only to have it shattered in their faces by no other than the one who was supposed to give it in the first place.

That's all I ever wanted from the beginning. Just someone who would be there through all the good and bad times, someone who would tell me it's going to be fine. Someone who didn't vanish halfway, leaving me to clean up the messes I didn't even make.

"I know that look, Seline," Arzo's voice zipped through my thoughts, reminding me of the world I had no choice but to consider my new reality. I turned to find him beside me, his face a curated expression of worry. I hated seeing it being directed at me. "What's bothering you?"

I looked away, training my gaze at the back of Mirani's head. I didn't have to be one of the writers of this game to know the adventurer was probably listening in on our conversation even if she didn't want to. Enhanced senses and all that.

"What's gotten in you, suddenly asking that question?" I said to Arzo. From my periphery, I saw him with shoulders slumped and walking with kind of a dragging gait. "Here I was assuming you lot didn't really care about me, save for Heather."

A look of shock rearranged Arzo's features. "Are you joking?" he shook his head. "Of course, we care about you. These last few weeks didn't prove that?"

I thought about it. Revery had taught me the basics of handling magical energy as a spiria. Trink was kind enough to show me how to swing a sword around without impaling myself. And Arzo...

He had always backed me up whenever I raised an opinion, even during this joint mission with the Dragnasand. Being a psalm spiria, he sure had a way with his words. "It did," I scratched the back of my head, my fingers brushing the knot of vines Kora had made for my hair yesterday. Cold gripped my limbs, freezing them in place. How come it didn't drop away in my sleep?

"Seline?" Arzo asked.

I shook my head and resumed walking. Mirani had already forged ahead, swatting vines and protruding branches out of the way with the back of her hand. Wouldn't that hurt? "Sorry, I spaced out there," I tugged the knot off my hair and chucked it at the nearest shrub with bright yellow and pink flowers glowing in the dim sunlight. "What I'm trying to say is that I felt really...cared for during my stay in Raventhorne. Just that...our first meeting didn't really go that well, did it?"

Arzo stuck his bottom lip out. "If you're still hung up about that, I apologize," he said. "We're still trying to get over Sonii and...well, with you suddenly showing up and Heather claiming you to be his immediate replacement, it just made his death a little bit more real."

"Know a thing or two about grief, I see," I said. "It never really does go away. The best thing we could do is to move on. I don't blame you for reacting that way, though. It's only natural."

Which reminded me of the fact that if this was a regular game and Arzo and the others were NPCs, this conversation—one that's purely personal and too detailed for my taste—wouldn't even happen unless it has something to do with the player's mission. But I have been in this world long enough to realize that not only was I not on any sort of mission, everyone around me has been moving along with theirs. It's like I wasn't even part of it until I barged into their lives and wreaked havoc. The world has simply moved on, without waiting for me, and certainly without expecting me to go with it.

This wasn't a game. Not anymore.

"I could say the same about you," Arzo inclined his head in my direction. "Know a thing or two about grief?"

I chuckled and tucked some strand of hair behind my tapered ear. "Too much about it, in fact," I said. Everything just came flooding back—from the moment it all started and the night it ended to the excruciating days of the aftermath of the only moment I chose not to fight.

"Is it connected to that Dragnasand adventurer by any chance?" Arzo tapped his chin. "What's his name? Kora? Yeah, that seems to be it."

I lunged and slapped my hand over Arzo's mouth, sending an urgent look at the back of Mirani's head. The blue-clad woman didn't appear to have heard it. That, or she just chose not to acknowledge the fact we're talking behind her comrade behind his back.

"Would it kill you to be wary of your surroundings?" I hissed in the lowest tone I could muster. "Why would you spill his name with her around?"

Arzo flashed me a sheepish look. "Sorry about that," he scratched the back of his teal mop of hair. "It's not like I'm watching you or anything, but ever since you two saw each other in Suprana, you've been on the edge."

I arched an eyebrow. "How?"

"It's like you always have your guard up, expecting a fist that will come punching from the shadows," he replied. "Except that you know it will never come. But you still choose to put your hackles up as if it will."

"You're saying I'm stuck in this stasis of...choosing whether to flee or to fight?" I said.

Arzo rolled his shoulders. "You could put it like that," he said. "And it only seems to intensify whenever you're in his radar or whenever the conversation steers to include him. Like now."

The comment made me conscious of my overall stance. My hands stretched to pop my joints and loosen the tightness in my shoulders and neck as a result. "How about now?" I asked when I finished.

"I'm not sure about that," came Arzo's reply. He blew a breath. "What is really going on between you two?"

I crossed my arms again, my nails digging into the metal grooves of the carving in my braces. "Nothing," I said. "Just that...there's too much that did."

Before Arzo could process what I meant, I widened my steps and resolved to catch up to Mirani who was already miles ahead. "I don't care about him now," I called after Arzo who began scrambling after me. "And I intend to keep at it until I die. He could rot in hell for all it's worth."

"Stop talking, both of you," Mirani's flat remark defeated whatever was coming out of Arzo's mouth. "Feel the ground."

I didn't know it was a direct order until she crouched and started running her hands over the spread of yellowish and bluish grass. Soon, both Arzo and I were brushing blades out of the way to get a view of whatever Mirani was looking for. Today's mission had been to look for another opening since the western tunnel we scouted had been blocked before we could even show it to the Gleamare officials. It's a miracle Dragnasand even took this mission since we couldn't even provide a decent set of details.

Did Mirani find anything?

"Don't come near me," Mirani's arm swept into a wide arc when my search brought me close to where she was crouched. "I know what we're standing on."

"What do you mean?" I knitted my eyebrows.

She brushed away more of the sand-like soil we've been walking on since we entered the twenty prinks radius Heather had assumed before we set out. "Recognize these purple streaks?" she asked.

I cleared a spot near me and the same webs of purple bed behind and under me. Blood drained from my face when I realized where we were. "We're on top of the nest," I breathed. Then, the images of the jjangkai Revery had drawn for me bled into my memory. The dark exoskeleton covered in varied splotches of purple, the towering stinger, the lobster-like claws, the thin, hairy legs, and the wickedly sharp mandibles—it's basically a spider crossed with a scorpion. Bugs.

"W-we should regroup with the others," I edged backwards, careful of my steps for the first time in a while. "Maybe w-we could proceed in a new direction since we're technically not upon an entrance? Get out of here, you know?"

"Seline, calm down," the tension in Mirani's voice only sent more panic flaring in my nerves. Bugs. I abhorred them. Couldn't look them in their beady eyes. Couldn't stand to be in the same room as them. If there was anything I hated more than Rin, it's bugs. "Don't move around, okay? There could be weak points around us."

Arzo came up behind me—to offer support or whatever, I wasn't sure—and his hand brushed the ends of my hair. A bug. I whirled, arms pinwheeling to swat that pest off me or at least keep it away. My hand caught Arzo's cheek, sending him crashing against a nearby trunk. I shot up, eyes widening at the mess I made. "Sorry about that—"

A distinct cracking sound cricked under me. "Don't move!" Mirani's urgent tone told me enough of what trouble I found myself in. "I'm coming, but—"

She didn't get to finish, because on my way to turn to her, the ground caved in and swallowed me whole. My mouth couldn't handle it anymore. It opened to let out the shrillest scream I've ever hollered.

"Seline!" Arzo and Mirani's combined voices blurred in my ears as my body went weightless. The sunlight was devoured by a growing darkness, gripping me until I slammed into a hard and compact expanse once more.

"Seline! You there?" Arzo's voice called down. I groaned and patted my limbs. All complete and not hurt anywhere. Just a little sore.

I craned my neck up towards the only stream of light in this dark cavern. "I'm fine!" I yelled back. "Just...get me out of here."

Mirani replaced Arzo's face in peeking out from the hole. "I sent a distress signal. Hopefully Ahrian or Nazran will see it," she said. "Going down there won't do us any good, so let's wait for them to figure out how to get you out without destroying the nest more than we already did."

Of course. I understood Cavya's caution in this scoping mission. He didn't want to lead his and our parties into a battle we couldn't win. We also couldn't do any more damage since it would alert the jjangkai of our presence and activity in their territory. Which meant...

"Am I going to be stuck here until help arrives?" I asked. The fear was evident in my voice and I ran out of reasons to hide it. Because if falling into a cavern meant something, it's that I was inside the nest. With bugs. That couldn't be good.

"I sent Arzo ahead," Mirani said. "He could fetch Cavya or Valren. I'm not—" she paused to curse under her breath. "I'm not strong enough to handle this on my own."

I frowned. "But you're a grand...whatever your rank is!" I said. "That's high enough for me as an initiate."

Mirani clicked her tongue. "Just stay put, alright?" she brushed her luscious fringes off her small, round face. "We're getting you out and I'll stay here until help arrives."

I couldn't believe my luck. Out of all the people who could fall into this place, it's me, who has an eternal fear of anything that has more than s a bajillion legs, who did? And I have someone with me who couldn't even lift a finger to help me? That's...

"What a load of bullshit," I gripped my hair, not caring if I end up tangling it. I wanted to scream, but something lodged in my throat even after all the gulps I made to remove it. Where was the help promised? Why was it taking so long? Dear God, there were bugs here. I couldn't—

I growled, drawing my foot back and kicking the first thing I saw within my periphery. "Ssi-bal!" The rock could take in my anger for all I care.

Only it wasn't a rock. Unless I developed super strength overnight, the faint cracking sounds emanating from the spot my foot landed wouldn't be possible. Hold on. Which part of the nest was I?

The rock burst, spraying purple goo everywhere. An egg. It's an egg. I just bashed my foot into an egg. And...

A small shriek rang from a fleshy bag of something emerging from the purple goo. A larva. Shrieking. At me. For what? Destroying its incubation peace, most probably. I stumbled backwards, the larva eyeing me with its deformed eyes. Its mandibles weren't quite pronounced yet, but a hint of the stinger was already whipping out behind it. Slowly, it dragged its bulky body reminding me of those pipes in washing machines draining out water.

I continued my retreat, my breaths coming hotter and hotter against my chest. My eyes never strayed from the larva crawling towards me, matching my every move. My back pressed against a wall. Purple streaks shone in my periphery. Oh, no.

I was cornered.

A flash of beige streaked towards me. This time, I didn't hold back. I screamed.