Victory at a cost

As soon as Eirik boarded the ship, it started moving. Leaving the beach was the most dangerous part of this process. Almrak, the beastman who was the ship captain, kept cursing as he tried to move the boat against the current. If he just let the water guide them, they would hit one of the many jagged rocks and crash, sending them all to the ocean's depths.

It was a tense two minutes, with everyone holding on to the ship and Nimbus even going outside to push it in the right direction at Eirik's request. But thankfully, they managed to pass that initial hurdle and continue their journey through the larger currents in the ocean. It was still a bumpy ride, but the danger was minimal, thanks to Captain Almrak's skills.

When the boat started moving, Sylvi healed a few of the people injured in the fight against the guards. There wasn't anything dangerous, but using battle heals was easier than healing an old injury. After the ship stopped rocking so much due to the rapids trying to bring them to a rock, the triton started looking after Hera and Silah. It didn't take long for her to find them in the lower decks, the dwarf already on a bench with Hera holding her hand by the side.

"I need water and medical supplies, now! Eirik, come here too. I might need some tools," Sylvi yelled to whoever was willing to hear and got closer to Hera, "I'm glad you managed to wake her up for the transfer. If she was still unconscious, it would have been a problem.

Hera frowned, "But she didn't wake up. I just moved, and she came with me."

Sylvi stopped, "What?"

"Yeah. What's wrong? I did that with Blue a while back, too."

"You told me that story. In that situation, the doorway was the only path to safety because of the MAZE itself, not because of people," Sylvi looked at Silah and frowned, kneeling beside her, "Give me a moment."

The triton took Silah's wrist in her hand and then moved to her neck. Despite her findings, she tried using a few healing spells. Simple ones that wouldn't waste too much mana but would at least have a reaction. However, the spells fizzled out. This time, it wasn't because they hit a wall like what happened in the lab, but right now, there was nothing left to heal. In the eyes of the system, Silah was no longer a person, just a person's remains.

"Hera… I'm sorry," Sylvi shook her head.

"For what? Do you need more time? Is there anything I can do to help? I have some mana stones with me if you run out," the Empress started looking for her mana stones, not wanting to understand what the triton was saying.

"No… It's not that. Silah... She's gone."

"No, she's right here. Heal her, please," Hera's voice cracked as she held back tears.

"Hera… I can't bring back the dead."

"No, no. NO! We don't leave people behind! We save them all. Nobody dies. That was the plan! If she dies, then we failed. I failed her. Please!" Hera was already starting to sob. She knew Sylvi wouldn't lie to her. She knew that this wasn't a joke. Yet, she couldn't accept it, not after all of this.

"I'm sorry." Sylvi got up and walked away. Other people needed her. She wanted to be there for Hera, but a healer couldn't linger to comfort people when there was more to do.

Instead, Nimbus, Lurize, and Daskka appeared and held the Empress. Hera continued crying and asking Silah to come back for several minutes while still trying to use her own spells to heal her. It was hard to watch, but no one in the boat complained. They all escaped thanks to Hera and the team, and the explorer wasn't the only one who had people she cared about involved in this. Even if the connections weren't as strong. Lysandra knew a couple of elves who were captured a long time ago, Eirik had friends who were part of the seminar, and Hornet trained a few of the guards who were captured along with the crafters. Nethe and Sylvi didn't know anyone personally, but the two of them were part of their species' government, which gave them some sense of responsibility. The only one who had no connections with anyone that was captured was Freya. That didn't mean she didn't care about what was happening. She got involved thanks to Blade of Dawn, the only person who was a part of the attack on the centaurs, and managed to escape before being sent to prison. The high-level fighter had met Freya long ago, and she was aware of her connection with Becca. Contacting Freya was just a way to get a message to Becca, a message that resulted in the current situation. Because of those connections, all the fugitives seeing Hera cry had complicated feelings. On one hand, they were happy to have been rescued and glad that they survived. On the other, it didn't seem fair for the one casualty to be someone this close to one of their saviors.

Now that they were on the ship, just waiting to reach their next destination, Zestra, Hornet, Lysandra, Nethe, and Freya had almost nothing to do. They gave Hera her space and talked with the prisoners about their next steps. Sylvi was still in a frenzy, going from person to person for a complete checkup. She started with the ones who looked the worst first but had to skip the elf with a black tattoo around his neck. Dealing with that would take a long time, and she didn't know if her healing would only aggravate his condition. At one point, when Hera stopped crying , Sylvi approached and used a spell that would preserve Silah's body. That way, the blacksmith's corpse wouldn't start rotting or getting into the early stages of rigor mortis. This wasn't just a way to let her family say her proper goodbyes but also to make it easier to carry the body back. The triton would only need to use that spell once every 7 days, and it was something many healers had at their disposal. Eirik also had a lot of work to do. Every fugitive still had the guild bracelet on them, which could be used to track those people. Removing them was complicated since each bracelet was bound to them with the help of the system. But there were ways to get rid of them. He had already removed the bracelet from the entire team and left them behind in the hotel. They had another contact that would be taking those bracelets away in a few days and passing them along to a few other people before reuniting them with their original owners. All of this was an attempt to hide their involvement in this, even if it was likely that people would realize they didn't leave the room.

After Hera stopped crying, she said nothing but refused to let go of Silah's hand. Her mind was constantly racing, thinking about what she could've done differently. She made so many mistakes during the entire operation, so many things she could've done to save Silah properly. The planning took too long. There were moments when they talked like friends instead of finding better ways to get inside. Eirik needed a couple of days to finish making the tools they used, and Hera didn't help him. If she had studied more about her crafter role, she might've been able to speed that up. During the infiltration, they were too careful in areas they didn't need to. She also took too long to put all the stickers. Fighting the Daemon was also something she could've done better. Hell, if she attacked the man right away, maybe he wouldn't even use that power. Looking for the spirit was also something that took too long. She also could've carried Silah better. She jostled her too much while on top of Nimbus and even used poison needles to stop attacks. She had learned to do it in the past few weeks, using poison to attack a spell directly, but she had to focus on doing so. Maybe she held Silah too tightly or in the wrong position during those moments. Or she did something that hurt her and led to her death.

Was she that careless just because they broke up? Would she have acted the same way if they were still together? Would she be there when she was kidnapped or dragged to that lab? Was all of this her fault for opening Boothudurn to the rest of the MAZE? Maybe she should've accepted that she would live there for the rest of her life and spent the next 80 years with Silah and the other dwarfs, living happily among them.

Hera spent the next few days in a daze. Those questions and possibilities kept going through her head again and again. During all that time, she refused to let go of Silah. She only ate when someone told her to and moved only when Nimbus, Lurize, or Livy guided her. People tried talking with her, but the Empress was unresponsive. Thankfully, the same couldn't be said for her court, who could still fight and defend the group from eventual monsters or help people who were having some kind of trouble. Sylvi tried helping her and checked to see if the trauma had triggered a psychosis, but Hera was still in control of her mental faculties. She wasn't doing great by any stretch of the imagination, but there weren't any signals that showed she was losing touch with reality. But the triton still stressed that Hera should try to talk with a professional when she had a chance.

After the Wide Blue, everyone continued moving together, crossing another 5 doorways each day to get as far away from the Gear Shift Nexus as possible. This was a risky move since it exposed them to the possibility of someone getting stuck due to the crossing limit. However, since that limit was followed by almost everyone, the guild would first look for the fugitives in rooms up to 3 crossing away from the prison's location. Only after checking all of them would they expand the search. Lysandra had organized a path that would lead them only to rooms without settlements until they reached their safe house in one of the minor cities of the elven empire. It was in a room called Crydonia. It was a place covered in snow with unique types of vegetation that thrived in the cold weather. But to get there, they would take 4 days, moving through 5 rooms each day.

There was some discussion about moving slower since some of the fugitives struggled to keep up, but in the end, they all agreed to press on. Reaching a safe place was worth the effort. After reaching Crydonia, they would split off. Each member of the team would take the members of their species to places where they would be protected. The dwarves from Boothudurn would have to go with Hornet for now since their home was too deep into human territory, and the guild would be looking for them. Eventually, they would be smuggled back, but that would have to wait sometime.

Becca, Freya, and Hera were the only ones who wouldn't have to go with anyone, but they all agreed to do so. Freya would join Lysandra and Eirik, Becca would accompany Zestra and Nethe, and Hera with Hornet and Sylvi.

Unfortunately, the thing they all feared happened when they were just 4 rooms away from Crydonia. Hera was hit by the crossing debuff. Making her unable to leave the room for the next 3 months. They were in a room called Mantis Lair, which only had a tiny outpost with less than 50 people living there. The monsters here were all giant variations of mantises mixed with other types of creatures or elements.

"Shit…" Lysandra scratched her head when Hera told them about the debuff, "Staying in the outpost is a bad idea. The place is too small, and if they ever come looking for you, it would be easy to spot you. Do you think you can live in the wild for that long?"

"Wait, I have a better idea," Eirik said, "There is a dungeon in this room called Pinnacle Mountain. There are monsters there, yes, but they are all from levels 34 to 38. However, she doesn't have to fight them. The dungeon is about getting the approval of the old… mantis person who lives at the top. You can stay there for as long as you want. A couple of houses are near the master's mansion, and every morning, a basket of food appears in the kitchen. Being alone there might not be easy, but Hera wouldn't be alone."

"That is a good idea. We can even send someone here weekly to see how she's doing. But then we need to set up a proper location where it would be safe to talk," Nethe frowned.

"I can just send Lurize out. Sure, he attracts attention, but he can be in his bug form until whoever you send gets to a private place or something," Hera suggested, with Silah's body still in her arms.

"Hera… if you are staying here. I think you should let us take Silah with us," Sylvi said, "We can keep her body safe until we find a way to take her back to her home."

"I already have some ideas about that," Eirik said.

Hera looked down, tears forming in her eyes. She knew that taking Silah's body to a dungeon was stupid, but still, it wasn't easy, "Can I have a moment?" she asked, and everyone moved away to give her space. The Empress stared at the blacksmith in her arms, thinking about everything that happened between them, "I'm sorry. I can't take you home. I failed you again." the Empress kissed Silah's forehead and hugged her, tears streaming down her face. A couple of minutes later, she joined the rest of the group again, and Ptrek got closer to take the body.

After saying her goodbyes, Hera asked Eirik, "Do you have a map of this room? With the dungeon marked on it?"

"Yes. Here," Eirik turned his tablet to Hera since the Empress no longer had her own. The only electronic they had available was the one the beastman carried. This was because he was the only device that was properly protected against tracking.

"We can take you there," Becca suggested.

"No, you need to keep moving. I'm the one who is stuck, so I'll figure it out myself," Hera turned to the fugitives, "Good luck, and stay safe."

With that, she left the group, heading towards the dungeon.

Livy was right by her side, with Lurize flanking her. Nimbus, however, stayed behind for a bit and turned to the team, "We will take care of her. Don't worry. She's not alone."

"Please do. She didn't deserve what happened. None of us did," Hornet nodded.

"I'll have someone drop by in a week. Eirik, do you have a watch? An analog one?" Lysandra asked.

"One moment," Eirik waved his hand in the air, creating a pocket watch with an alarm option, "Here. It's set up to ring once every 7 days starting today. When it rings, someone will be here. They'll have the symbol on the back of the watch stamped on their clothes. Probably around the arm or chest."

"Thank you," Lysandra smiled since the beastman seemed to have thought about everything.

"I appreciate it. Also, if you can tell Hera's friends and family that she's ok. It would be very helpful. I know she wouldn't want to worry them too much," Nimbus added.

"We will," Becca nodded, already taking that job as her responsibility.

"Well, until next time," Nimbus waved to them as he picked up the watch and rushed back to Hera's side.

The fugitives all stared at the Empress while she left, knowing they wouldn't be free if it wasn't for her. They watched her until she was no longer in their view, vanishing in the forest of the room. None of them would ever forget what she did for all of them, and the price she paid for it.