"Is he going to live?" Vivi asked.

Grandpa was frowning even in his sleep. He lay on a small water mattress inside one of the igloo-like stone homes. This building was intended for guests and didn't house much furniture. Blocks of stone acted as benches, a larger block as a table.

That wasn't to say the house was stale. Art had been carved into the walls, mostly monsters and sharp objects. The artists were skilled with their tools, but the surgehound they'd depicted looked more like a scared rat. The artists clearly hadn't seen many monsters in their lives.

Lortel and one of the coreless fishfolk stood beside the bed. Examinations and treatments had already been done. Lortel pushed ether into his lungs in hopes of cleaning him of daze powder, fed him potions, and applied some sort of healing skill. Vivi couldn't do much other than sit outside and worry while the healers did their jobs.

"He will most likely live," Lortel said. "He requires nutrition and time, perhaps assistance breathing if his condition gets bad. His throat and lungs are covered in scars from the inside."

"Can that be cured?" Vivi asked.

"To the point that he will survive and breathe on his own, hopefully," Lortel said. "A full recovery, definitely not. We hope he retains his ability to work."

Vivi bit her lip, listening to Lortel say that in her monotone voice. The demons had mainly helped Vivi and Grandpa because of their runesmithing. Not because of kindness. If Grandpa woke up without his ability to craft runeswords, the mission was a failure for them.

Although, Vivi knew, if Grandpa woke up without the ability to shape veins and hit a hammer, he'd live the rest of his life as the grumpiest, most miserable old man to ever exist. Grandpa when he was on a break from runesmithing was not someone anyone would want to meet.

"I will ensure that your grandpa lives," Lortel said. Her sharp red eye turned to Vivi; she looked honest. "He will be saved."

"Thank you," Vivi said. She didn't know what else she could add. "Can I do anything to help?"

"No," Lortel said.

Right, Vivi thought. She offered a nod of appreciation and exited the building, onto the narrow footpath on the side of the street. Most of the island was made up of waterways. A group of fishfolk—chorodea, as their species was called—swam past her at the pace humans could run. Vivi adjusted her raincoat. Her drenched dress hung on a wire, slowly drying. The dress wasn't ruined; Lortel had built it to withstand light damages, but it felt good to wear the raincoat again.

"Awful to think about how fragile humans without ether really are," Lucius said. "Just a little bit of daze powder, and your grandpa almost died."

Vivi frowned. Humans don't just die out of nowhere. That daze powder was thrown at him.

"Yeah…" Lucius said.

Vivi began walking across the narrow paths. Lucius was silent, until he said, "We have a hunting company now."

Kind of, Vivi thought. Not really. We haven't set up any official papers.

"What do we plan on using it for?" Lucius asked.

Probably nothing for the time being, Vivi thought. The hunting company is as fake as my surname. Even if it was official, owning a hunting company won't offer us much unless we're living amongst humanity. My announcement was more of a proclamation. If other hunting companies want to work with us, they're free to contact me. If hunters want to kill us, they can go ahead. We will fight.

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"I'm fairly certain every hunting company will fight us after our invasion," Lucius said. "We teamed up with demons."

Vivi shrugged. If they don't like us, they don't like us. Our enemies are too scared to visit the fifth level anyway.

"You can't forget that Ingfried is also our enemy," Lucius said. "Only Shivenar's demons are allies."

That's enough, is it not?

"Yes, of course," Lucius said. "It's more than enough. More than what my previous wielder had."

Vivi sighed. Lucius and his previous wielder. Her stupid spirit still refused to mention anything about his previous wielder.

Vivi walked for a few minutes, after which she found herself at the opposite end of the island. Sounds came from a larger building. The entrance was shut with curtains, though Vivi had been told she could enter.

"A storm will hit?" Coshi's voice came from inside. "This chasm?"

"Ether dwells," another voice said. "And prophecies brew."

"Stop it with the folklore and mysticism," Coshi said. "Is the storm season really that bad?"

"The Age of Typhoons started five thousand years ago. Precisely five thousand."

Vivi entered past the curtains, into the dimly lit room. At the back sat an elderly woman, gazing into a round ball. The ball was shaped like a large etherprint scanner with the properties of a skill container. A large wisp floated within.

The woman herself was coreless. A chorodea with fins for ears, though her graying hair was dry, and her silk dress wasn't waterproof. Despite possessing no ether, her eyes glowed. Vivi sensed ether in her gaze as the woman interacted with the odd ball.

"And what does that mean?" Coshi asked.

"Nothing," the woman said. "But the ball sees ether. Storms are coming. A man of the cities below visited. He brought news of a disaster on the fourth level."

"A storm is building inside a descent, from what I heard," Coshi said.

"A tsunami," the woman said. "Levelstone will break. Monsters will pillage."

"Stop with the goddamned prophecies," Coshi said with a sigh. "What do you think?"

"I am not a surge forecaster, but a prophet," the woman asid. "I do not believe. I see. And I see ether."

Coshi frowned with a difficult expression on her face. She lifted her head toward the doors and smiled. "Vivi, good evening."

"Is something happening?" Vivi asked.

"Storm season. A bad one apparently." Coshi stretched her arm above her head. "Our ride is departing today. We'll cross through Fenbern, back to the fifth level, and across the Shivell mountains. We'll reach Shivenar in roughly four days."

Vivi nodded. "Our deal is done, then. As we agreed, you can keep the swords. I will keep Grandpa. I'll continue business in the Lost Raindrop."

Coshi smirked. "You're speaking like we're some thieves."

"No, I don't mean that," Vivi said. "I'm thankful."

"I can see why you don't trust leaders," Coshi said. "That Veronica human… Whoever she was, thinking about her pisses me off. I never thought humans could be so troublesome. I'm glad to be back underground. The open sky was interesting, but I think I'd cry if I had to live daily with this rainfall problem."

"Shivenar could use some rain as well," Vivi said. "Maybe they'd sell raincoats in stores, then."

Coshi grinned. She still wore the raincoat. "You're planning on staying in Shivenar? For how long?"

"I'll stay as long as it's nice," Vivi said. "My shop is there."

"That's good," Coshi said. "Shivenar is weak globally at the moment. I'm the strongest warrior in the city. Somehow. We have no exalted skills, and nobody is even close to the fifth elevation. Your runeswords will be a huge help for defending the city from whatever bosses the storms spawn this season."

"What exactly is a storm season?" Vivi asked. "Is it really that bad?"

Coshi tilted her head, as if Vivi had just admitted she didn't know what the sun was. Lucius, too, gave her an odd look in her core.

"Vivi…" Lucius popped out of her core. "Your school taught you about storm seasons, right?"

"No?" Vivi asked.

"You've never lived through a storm season? You don't even know what the storm season is?"

"We don't have storms on the surface," Vivi said.

Lucius's spirit eyes stared at her. He didn't sound excited, despite the topic being storms and surges. "You're going to need to start channeling a lot more ether, Vivi. We've been slacking."

"Yes?" Vivi leaned back. Lucius flew too close for her eyes to focus.

"Because if you want to keep a home during storm season," Lucius said, crossing his paws, "you better be strong enough to defend it."

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