Book 3, chapter 26

After sparring with the surprisingly agile rift walker, Zee helped the others harvest the dead Vixen. Looking a little worse for wear, Pikar stood nearby, watching intently as she tore an ichor-covered splinter from the vixen's charred abdomen.

It was a messy task, but it had to be done.

"What are you getting the cores for, they taste awful," Pikar said, his foot-long tongue darting out between his thin black lips, exposing rows of jagged teeth.

Zee shuddered at the creepy display, focusing on her task.

"We don't eat them, we trade them for other things, like those daggers I gave you," Zee said, wiping her gunk-covered hands off on her cloak.

That piqued Pikar's interest. "What else can we trade them for," Pikar asked, its head bobbing in excitement.

She shrugged. "That depends on how many of them you have, and where you go," Zee replied.

"So, what would you trade the Nest if we had a lot of these? Do you have more weapons, like these daggers," Pikar asked, its pale, eyeless face hard to read.

"I am sure the others have a few spare weapons. Give me a moment, I will go ask them," Zee replied.

She wasn't really doing it for the money, as she wasn't expecting the rift walkers to have many splinters, but more to curry favor with the nest. These rift walkers could be a gold mine of information if they got past the fact she killed two of them.

With that in mind, she found the one person who might actually have a few spare weapons on hand. She found Bastion making his way through the burned husk of the former hive. "Any luck?" Zee asked.

Bastion shook his head sadly. "Naw. What a waste. I can't believe you torched that much money," Bastion grumbled.

Zee laughed, glancing around the ashen wreck of the collapsed building around her.

"As one door closes, another opens. Tell me, do you have any spare weapons perchance," Zee asked.

Bastion raised an eyebrow at her, glancing over her shoulder to the rift walker watching them.

"Yes... I have a few spare weapons, I might be willing to trade. For a sizeable fee of course." Bastion said with a grin.

Zee rolled her eyes. "Just give them over. I know you stole them when we were out shopping in Carden," Zee said.

Bastion smirked and, began taking weapons from his spatial storage.

Ten spears, a half dozen swords, two maces, and even a battle axe.

Zee stared at the man, mouth agape.

"How did you steal those? That's so many, and you didn't even have your spatial storage yet," Zee asked, aghast at the man.

Bastion smirked.

"What can I say, it's a gift," Bastion said.

"Being good at stealing is not a gift. You should be ashamed of yourself," Zee said.

Bastion bobbed his eyebrows tauntingly at her, not a spark of shame on his face. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to Pikar.

"What do you think? How much will the nest give us for that many weapons?" Zee asked.

Pikar's head bobbed excitedly. "Your nest mate is very generous. Give me a while, I will go talk to the prima." Pikar said, vanishing into thin air, space rippling behind it.

"What was that about?" Bastion asked, curiously.

"Oh you know, just selling these weapons to the rift walkers," Zee said offhandedly.

Bastion laughed.

"Selling stolen weapons? I have never been prouder," Bastion said.

Her smacked her on the shoulder playfully, his fingers brushing her skin. It was a brief touch, yet it made shivers run up her spine.

It made her realize just how close they were, standing a foot apart. She looked up into his eyes, a bright hazel, with specs of orange.

Even covered in ichor, ash, and sweat he made her heartbeat quicken. He looked like a victorious warrior, which didn't help her bundled-up feelings.

The urge to pull him into her arms and kiss his full lips was nearly overwhelming. She took a deep breath, and looked away, banishing such traitorous thoughts.

He had already made his stance quite clear nearly four months ago.

Overstepping would be a mistake. All it might do was get her another extremely uncomfortable talk and might lose her a close friend.

With that in mind, she took a step back, her heart drumming loudly in her chest.

Thankfully, the awkward moment was cut short, as Pikar reappeared a few feet away, carrying a large sac on its back.

Apparently, a while in rift walker terms, was only about a minute. Had Pikar really gone all the way back to the nest in that short time?

Zee didn't know exactly where it was, but the nest had to be at least a mile away.

With a loud, Clink, Pikar tossed the sack onto the ash-covered stone. The bag opened, and a pile of shiny beast splinters spilled onto the floor.

Dozens of gem-like beast splinters spilled from the bag, ranging in a variety of colors from sky blue to forest green.

And judging by the size of the bag, that was only a small fraction. There had to be hundreds of splinters in that sac, a fortune.

"I hope this is enough," Pikar said anxiously.

"What do you think Bastion? Is that enough?" Zee asked.

Bastion nodded, his eyes gleaming, "Oh yes,"

She smiled at the rift walker, an expression that was probably pointless since it didn't have eyes.

Then again, Pikar's head bobbed in excitement, clearly pleased. Maybe it could read her expressions somehow?

She pushed aside the superfluous thought, focusing on her spatial ripple skill.

"That is more than enough. Thank you Pikar, take the weapons back to your nest," Zee said.

"This will be of great benefit to our Nest. Prima Veck, sends his deepest thanks for your gracious gifts," Pikar said.

The rift walker took the weapons in its arm and disappeared, leaving them both with a sack filled with extremely valuable monster splinters. Zee reached down and took one, eying the pinky-sized crystal thoughtfully.

"Let me guess, you are going to waste your share like you did the others?" Bastion asked, giving her a sidelong glance.

"Of course. I have already come this far, who knows, I might be getting close to a breakthrough," Zee said.

"Such a waste of money. When we return to Carden, you are going to be the only member of the team who is dirt poor," Bastion said.

Zee grinned down at him, as he rifled through the bulging sack of energy-rich crystals. "I don't really care for money to be honest. As long as I can do what I want, and grow stronger, it's superfluous. Besides, this is in the pursuit of a breakthrough," Zee rationalized.

"You sure are stubborn, pursuing a goal at tremendous cost, despite no tangible results," Bastion asked.

"It's not like I was doing anything with those beast splinters, they were just collecting dust in my spatial storage," Zee said with a shrug.

"Well, not all of us have your unfair talents and background. Some of us have to make our way on our own," Bastion said.

"I would be more sympathetic if you weren't elbow-deep in enough wealth to buy a castle," Zee retorted.

"That's not an accurate assessment. Split five ways, it's only enough to buy a moderate-sized estate in the countryside," Bastion mused.

She raised a questioning eyebrow, which made him look a bit offended.

"What? Did you think I was going to hoard this all to myself?" Bastion asked.

"No, of course not," Zee said.

"I did," Allison said, stepping carefully to avoid the smoldering wreckage around them.

Bastion placed a hand on his chest, a hurt look on his handsome face saying, "Oh valiant leader, you wound me,"

Allison's ignored his comment, as she gave the wreckage of the hive a once over.

"Good, job Zee. I didn't expect you to actually make it to the hive proper so fast," Allison said.

"Heh, thanks. Though, we may need to work on the power of that device in the future. I was almost caught in the explosion when I delivered Yukna's explosive right through the front door," Zee said, scratching the back of her gunk-covered hair sheepishly.

The princess nodded thoughtfully. "I will talk to her. Also, you two should get cleaned up, don't want you getting sick from all that gunk on you," Allison said.

A few minutes later, they picked her way through the smoking garden, giving a copse of smoldering trees a wide birth.

Their battle with the vixen have had really done a number on the garden, though it had thankfully not caused a city fire.

Tendrils of thick black smoke snaked up into the sky, mixing with the swirling yellow smoke above.

Zee would normally be worried about that smoke attracting monsters if not for one little fact.

According to Pikar, all the monsters including rift walkers avoided the territory of the vixen like the plague.

Given how aggressive and dangerous those oversized wasps were, Zee could see why.

Zees' team might be the outliers, as they were well suited to the task of dealing with large amounts of fairly weak opponents.

Even still, it had taken copious amounts of fire and explosives to wipe them all out. At this point, it might be her team's specialty.

After a bit of searching, she found Yukna and Dern working together as usual, setting up an odd diagram on the dirt.

It was a familiar ritual, one they had been working on for a few weeks with some success.

"Oh, hey Zee. Right on time. We need a test dummy to try out our newest version of the cleansing array," Yukna said, thin wisps of energy flowing from her fingers into the ritual.

"It's not going to make my clothes fall apart again is it," Zee asked, hesitantly.

Yukna adjusted her glances with a dainty finger, smiling sweetly at her.

"You have to admit, that was pretty funny," Yukna said.

"You wrecked a perfectly good pair of clothes. Not to mention the fact that everyone got an eyeful, It was insanely embarrassing." Zee said.

"You should have seen the look on Bastion's face, it was priceless," Yukna said.

Zee flushed at the embarrassing reminder, glancing back at Bastion who looked just as uncomfortable as she felt.

He wouldn't meet her eyes, his cheeks flushing crimson.

"What? An insanely beautiful woman was suddenly naked in front of me, I'm only human. Besides, it's not my fault the ritual malfunctioned," Bastion said defensively.

Yukna cleared her throat, "Enough dallying, you two can bicker later. The ritual won't last for long before it runs out of power."

Zee glared at Bastion as she strode forward which caused him to avert his eyes, even turning around. Zee wasn't actually upset.

It wasn't the first time a member of the team had seen more than she wanted them to. Given how dangerous the planar space was, they rarely ever got much privacy.

Going out into the forest, or city on your own was just begging to be gobbled up by a monster.

Sometimes she had to drop trow and do her business where everyone could see rather than open herself up to getting eaten by a monster.

It was uncomfortable, sure, but it was a lot better than being eaten.

Still, this was not one of those times where she was forced to forgoe privacy.

Dern snickered in her head as she stepped onto the ritual, motes of silver energy snaked through her clothes, caressing her skin.

"What are you laughing about?" Zee asked.

"I just thought it was amusing that you think you have privacy," Dern said.

"Well, no need to be smug about it," Zee grumbled.

"I can't believe you actually thought you could hide something like your cracked splinter from me," Dern said amusedly.

"One of these days, I am going to wipe that smugness from your tone, by locking you out of my head," Zee said.

He laughed.

"Your mental defenses are still laughably weak. I didn't even have to try to learn about our cracked splinter," Dern said, as ichor was cleaned from her clothes and hair, disintegrated by the ritual.

The cleansing array made her skin tingle, though not unpleasantly.

"Well, that's because a certain someone refuses to teach me how to strengthen my mental defenses," Zee said pointedly.

Dern sent her a mental grin. "That is where you are mistaken, I have been teaching you," Dern retorted.

"No you haven't," Zee insisted, mesmerized by the wisps of energy cleaning the gunk from her clothing.

"Yes, I have. You might not have noticed it, but I have. When we first met I didn't even have to try to read your thoughts. Now it actually takes some effort, though not much," Dern said.

"Huh, well, that's good to know. I guess I will keep working on keeping you out. Maybe one day I will get some peace and quiet," Zee muttered.

"Hah, good luck with that," Dern said with a mental grin.

Zee focused and tried to kick him out, hitting a wall that was his mental defense.

Her own well of mental energy felt like a small pond in comparison to his vast ocean.

Dern was right. He could crush her mental defenses if wanted, easily overpowering her own.

He sent her an amused smile, before retreating back into his conjured form next to the ritual.

Zee sometimes forgot what kind of being Dern was.

With his laziness and fascination with creating stuff with Yukna, he seemed fairly harmless.

He was a being that fed on the souls of both monsters and people alike, thriving by consuming their very essence. She knew all that, yet she trusted him implicitly.

With one final surge, the ritual finished its work, leaving both her skin and clothes spotless.

It wasn't near as good as a shower or bath, but it was far better than bathing using a rag and some water.

She glanced down at the rips and gashes in her mottled grey shirt and black pants. Some of them were new, but most were old.

After months in the planar space fighting monsters, all of her clothes had holes, from either injuries or just simple wear and tear.

Yukna snapped her fingers in front of her.

"Hey. Zee, hey, hurry up, you are wasting the ritual's power by standing there," Yukna said.

Zee stepped off the ritual, experimentally tugging at her clothes, happy they hadn't turned to dust. It was nice to be clean, though she knew it wouldn't last long.

Her eyes landed on the pitch-black spire piercing the clouds, the storm swirling high above them. They had more buildings to search for riches a tower to investigate, and more monsters to kill.