After another small wave of skitterslinks, which we handled with ease, we reached a heavy iron door, opened it, and entered a large, open room. Lining the walls were racks filled with patinaed bronze pickaxes and a variety of other tools I didn't recognize. Between them, a smattering of old weapons, some bronze, but most steel, were rotting away, and a few tables were strewn about without rhyme or reason. Somehow, there were still mugs sitting on many of the tables collecting dust, but besides the old gear and tables, I didn't see anything of value. Likewise, I didn't see anything that stood out as a threat, but I wasn't about to take any chances.

"Stay sharp, everyone. Look around, and call out if you find something."

Na-Ya stepped beside me. "I've got this."

[Detect Life]

Her eyes began glowing with a deep purple light. After a slow, careful look around the room, she finally nodded and said, "The room is clear."

"I'm going to check around and lock the doors, just in case." Ro walked past me, sword drawn and shield held at the ready.

"I'm coming, too." Vral ran up to his side, daggers drawn and eyes searching everything all at once.

"Take the south door. I'll take the north."

"Okay." Vral ambled away from Ro and toward the left side of the room, where a large iron door was set into the wall.

"You'll have to teach me that spell," Tristan said beside me. She'd walked between me and Na-Ya.

"I will." Na-Ya turned to her cousin and smiled. "When you come back to the temple next, we can work on it all. You're so close to becoming a full priestess," She squeezed Tristan's hand. "Once you reach that point, I have so much to teach you, and with you being born under the Tower, plus all your natural talents, you'll surpass me in no time. We just need to practice together."

Tristan nodded. "I don't know about surpassing you, but I'd like that. I miss spending time with you."

"I do, too." Pointing at a dusty set of chairs standing beside an equally dusty table, the elf said, "Come, sit with me." Tristan's hand still in hers, she pulled them both toward the tables. A moment later, the girls were sitting together, side by side, and quietly chatting.

Just as I went to help Ro and Vral, I heard a voice behind me. "Alex," Faye's voice was soft. "A word?"

"Sure." Turning, I found the Hero already at the other side of the room.

Goddess, she was fast.

Shaking my head, I marched up to the Hero and asked, "What's up?"

"Make sure your party rests for a bit. They need it."

"We can keep going, though." I didn't understand why we should slow down when we'd only just started. "Shouldn't we press forward before the monsters catch on to us being here? I don't like the idea that they might lock us down in here."

She shook her head. "Your thinking isn't wrong, but it isn't right, either."

"Explain that to me."

"When you're in a dungeon, you shouldn't take all day, but you shouldn't rush, either." She held up her right hand. "Go too fast? You lose people. People get injured. You end up running into problems you would have noticed had you gone a bit slower." Dropping her right hand, she raised her left. "Go too slow? You give the enemy time to reinforce themselves. Or, they end up retreating." She held up both hands so that they looked like scales. "You have to strike a balance."

I turned and looked my party over. They all seemed fresh. "Everyone seems fine, though."

"Do they?" Faye shook her head. "You likely are, but what about them? Sure, you've only fought a little since you've arrived here. I've seen you fight. You're strong, and you certainly can take more. However, as a leader, you need to remain constantly aware of the state of your team. If you lose sight of your party members' needs, whether they're physical, mental, or spiritual, you'll lose them sure as the orb grows bright in the morning."

"Lose them how?" I knew the answer, but I needed to hear it. I needed to know what was ahead of me.

"Whether it's from death, fatigue, or low morale, loss is loss, and it always stings." She waved her hand toward the others and said, "Now, with that in mind, look again. Search for anything out of the ordinary."

I turned and really took them all in.

Ro had his usual light smile on his face as he wrestled to shut the rusty door to the north. He seemed completely at ease and fully like himself.

On the other side of the room, Vral was kicking away at some heavy stones that were blocking her door. Reaching down, she tried to pick one up, but she winced and went back to kicking.

"Something's wrong with Vral."

"Good. What is it? What do you see?"

I watched her movements. She was favoring one arm and nursing the other, the one that got bitten. But why? We'd both taken far worse hits in the past and shrugged them off without any complaints. Why would a weak monster's bite slow her down?

"It doesn't make sense." Turning toward the Hero, I found her green eyes fixed on mine. The intensity behind them...

"What doesn't?" This wasn't Faye the frumpy medieval college student speaking right now. This was the Hero in all her wisdom, mentoring me.

"She's struggling more than she should with those rocks." While she wasn't as strong as I was, she was definitely bodybuilder-level back on Earth, and those rocks weren't that large.

"Vral's arm hurts more than she's letting on, correct?"

"Yeah." I watched as Ro finished with his door and crossed the room to help Vral.

"Good." In the corner of my eye, I could see Faye nodding.

"Shouldn't the healing have fixed that?" We'd healed her wounds right away. They shouldn't have lingered.

"Yes and no. Magical healing is fast, especially when one's wounds are healed quickly, but it's not instant. Also, while wounds from weapons and the like can be healed almost instantly, monster bites tend to linger, and skitterslink bites are worse since they're lightly venomous. It takes time."

"Do you think we need to stop?" I didn't want to, but if her wound might get infected or something, there was no use pressing forward. "I don't want to press on if she's going to get worse."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I can't make that call."

"In your opinion, then. As a mentor."

She smiled. "My opinion as your mentor is that you're fine. She just needs a bit more time to rest and heal. Rest being the operative word right now."

Something was nagging at me. "Why didn't she tell me she was hurting?" That thought got my blood all hot. "She shouldn't hide things from me!" I couldn't protect her if she didn't open up.

"Is it her fault for acting true to herself?"

"Yes! She doesn't need to be like that. She needs to be more honest and not bottle shit up all the time." My voice was a little louder than I'd meant for it to be.

Looking up, she searched around until she found me against the wall, smiled brightly, and waved. "Almost done!"

That made my heart melt.

"Don't be upset. You'll end up with easily avoidable conflicts that way. Good leaders don't instigate or target their team members, and they don't get upset over small things. They empathize and coordinate, and they keep their cool."

I needed this. I wanted to be the best leader I could be. Who better to learn from than the Hero herself? "Okay. Help me empathize, then."

"It's simple, really." She sighed. "Culturally, goblins rarely, if ever, express when they feel pain. It's both dangerous and often social suicide in their tribes. Expecting a goblin to share their pain is like expecting a cat to love water. Some freaks exist out there in the world, but most cats will light you up before they let you throw them in a bath." She pointed at Vral. "Vral's learned to share how she feels better than many of her people. Learn to value that. She's doing well. It's you who needs to do better."

"We're her family. Shouldn't she—"

"Shoulds aren't real, Alex."

"But shouldn't she—"

"Remember to always work with what is, not what should be."

Huh. "That's good advice. I never thought of it that way."

"Well, now you have." She grinned. "And of course it is. I gave it. Do you know how many times I had to fuck up to learn all this shit?"

I laughed. "No idea."

Chuckling, she said, "Far, far too many times."

"Okay, what else do I need to know, wise sage?"

She laughed, then continued. "Besides her culture, she's desperate for your acceptance and approval, and she wants to keep being an inspiration to Tristan. She's afraid that, if she looks weak, she'll lose Tristan's love and respect." She sighed. "Simply put, she doesn't feel secure."

"But... all I do is tell her how much I value her. I don't know how else to make her feel like she belongs."

"Words aren't enough. She needs something more from you."

"Like what?" What else did I have left to give?

"That's for you to figure out, Mr. Sentinel." Pointing at Vral again, she said, "Until you do, Vral won't be comfortable looking weak in front of you. Until she gets what she needs, you'll need to keep an eye out for how she's feeling. Don't trust her words. Focus on her actions. Her movements. Her body won't lie to you."

"That... really helps, actually." I expected everyone to be an open book like I was, and I wasn't even all that open. Like hiding how I was feeling from Tristan, or not telling everyone that I'd been having bad dreams. I'd hidden plenty. It wasn't fair to them to expect more than I was willing to give. I had to be better.

"Besides Vral, what else do you see when you look out over your party?"

"Um..." Turning away from Vral, I looked at Na-Ya and Tristan. While Na-Ya looked mostly okay, if a little tired. "Na-Ya seems okay."

"What about Tristan?"

"Hmm..." Looking the quarter-elf over, I noticed that she, on the other hand, looked exhausted. Pale. A little sickly, even. "Tristan looks off."

"See how pale she is? Notice the color around her eyes?"

"Yeah."

"That's mana drain. She's cast too many spells too quickly and needs to rest and meditate to restore her essence."

"Is that common? Mana drain?"

"Yes. No matter what type of magic they wield, whenever a spellcaster looks like that, they're in desperate need of rest."

"But she didn't use that many skills. Why is she so tired already?"

"Are you sure she used skills?" Her voice had that tone that made it clear she knew something I didn't.

What did that mean, though? "I mean, I think so. I saw them in my mind when she used them."

"Did she learn a few spells recently?"

"Yeah, a couple. Why? Is that part of it?"

"Yes," She said simply. "You're a fighter. You don't cast spells, so you wouldn't understand."

I really didn't. I used skills all the time, and I didn't end up looking like that. "I don't get what the difference is."

"A real mage can explain it better to you at some point, but this is what I know." She pointed at me, then herself. "When we use our skills, we have an intuitive understanding of what our limits are. Sure, we get tired if we push past those limits and end up using our skills a few too many times, but we can still sense what the boundaries are. It's hard to overdo it. Even when we try, the worst that happens is we might get dizzy or black out." She pointed at the priestesses. "Spells aren't like that. They're derived either from the words of the Goddess, the Old Gods, or the Dark Lord. Whatever the source, spells are their words repurposed for our uses. And the thing is, they're what shaped the world and were never meant for us."

Huh, I never did fully grasp how magic worked here. I just figured it was meditation, mana, and magic light hands. "What does that mean, not meant for us?"

"I don't know the specifics, so I can't really answer that. All I know is, when a mage casts a spell, it pulls on their spirit more than skills do. If they overcast their spells, they can easily end up harming themselves, and their spells can also go wild. I've even seen mages unmake themselves before by overcasting. It's not pretty."

"Unmake themselves?"

"Don't ask."

Got it. "How long does a mage need to rest when they're like that?"

"Depends. If the mana in the area is particularly dense, not long at all. Maybe fifteen minutes to a half hour. If the mana is particularly thin, it could take days. Usually, though, an hour's enough. And food helps."

"I see." I still had so much to learn. "So, why didn't she say anything, wise teacher? It's not like she's a goblin." Tristan had no excuse.

"She likely doesn't know her limits, yet. I don't think it's more than that. I'm certain that Na-Ya noticed, though. That's why she had Tristan sit."

That did make sense. Na-Ya pulled her to that table as soon as we entered the room. "Got it."

Faye smiled. "Plus, you're much stronger than her now. She likely doesn't want to inconvenience you or slow you down."

"She's never an inconvenience."

"No?" Faye's immortal eyes found mine again. "When you can fight for hours and she can fight for minutes, are you sure? It's okay to recognize you're at different power levels right now. You can fix that later, but it won't get better with denial."

Damn, immortal wisdom. "Well..."

"Knowing the limits of your party members is an essential part of being a leader. By knowing them, you can always ensure that you only take on threats that everyone can handle." She thrust a finger into my breastplate. "Also, you need to know your limits. You may be the unbreakable man, but you're not invincible. You need to slow down, too, and you need to rest when you can. No one can be everything to everyone all the time, and you certainly can't help others when you're tired and burnt out."

I sighed. "Yes, ma'am."

She chuckled and stepped backward. "So, knowing all of this, what will you do? What comes next?"

Watching as Vral dropped another rock, I took a breath and stepped away from the stone wall and toward the southern door. "Vral, take a break."

"I'm fine!" She reached down to grab the rock again and winced as she picked it up.

How could I convince her without it feeling like an attack?

A memory flooded into my mind.

Devon always fought me whenever I gave her instructions back in Dave's food truck. Whenever she did that, I'd have to offer a carrot instead of a stick. Then, she'd work harder than anyone. "You're going to be taking point once we get moving again. How'll you show us how awesome you are if you aren't rested up??"

Her head snapped upward, those red eyes of hers sparkling with barely constrained joy. "You won't hold me back?"

"As long as you don't try to take on twenty monsters on your own, nope. Not at all."

She grinned. "You got it, boss." She practically skipped to the table where Tristan and Na-Ya were sitting.

Moving to the southern door, Ro and I made short work of the stones, then slid the door shut. I pulled out the map to make sure there weren't any other openings I was missing. Seeing that there were none left, I rolled the map back up, slid it into my belt, and made my way to the table. Once there, I placed my pack down and opened up the pouch that held all our trail goodies. Pulling several handfuls out, I said, "We might as well eat up before we go any further. No use fighting on an empty stomach, right?" I grabbed an apple, took a hearty bite, and stepped backward.

Tristan's stomach growled loudly enough that it echoed throughout the room. "I didn't realize how hungry I was." She reached for a bag of dried vegetables. "I'm famished."

Na-Ya's eyes met mine, and she gave me a soft nod before grabbing some fruit. I was sure that she was telling me I did well.

"I want the nuts!" Vral snatched a bag of salted nuts, tore it open, and threw a handful of the salted things back. Crunching like a happy squirrel, she mumbled, "Sho ghud!" before throwing another handful back.

"Thanks, man. We'll dig into my rations next break." Ro grabbed some dried meat and took a bite.

As I watched my party eat and rest, I couldn't help but feel proud. This was what leaders did.

A hand found my pauldron.

Turning, I saw that Faye was smiling at me and looking proud. "Good job."

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