Governing Council Private Message:

Sender: Quartermaster Anders, Roadrunner Guild

Status: Low Priority

Delver Noelstra,

Your application to the relief and reinforcement convoy, destination Carlsbad Fortress, has been accepted. You have requested to be attached to Delver Carlson's team, and Delver Carlson has approved the request.

Your team, Team C-Two, will have the initial task of clearing the northeast edge of the convoy's route.

Report to the convoy's rally point, Eastgate on the 303 Wall, at 0830 tomorrow morning.

I read the message for the fifth time since I'd received it. I'd made it. It had cost me; the uncomfortable feeling in my core wouldn't go away. The damage I'd done to it in the push to learn five Laws and consolidate them all at once would take a long time to heal, and until it did, I couldn't risk pushing to B-Rank. Not fighting wasn't an option, so my skills would grow. I couldn't stop that. So I'd have to actively avoid any Law-learning.

And I'd grown far too quickly for my mind to keep up. I was still thinking about fights like I was an E-Ranker, and here I was, at C-Rank. I needed to take some time to figure out what I was and wasn't capable of. To spend some dedicated portal clears and fights finding the limits of my body and mind. And the convoy was an opportunity to do that.

But as much as it had transformed my core and body, the push had also changed my build dramatically in a few ways.

The first was the upgraded Charge-consuming skills. Thunderblade, Mistform, and Windfall all had potential as game-changing powers, although they were significantly more expensive than the skills they'd replaced. I couldn't wait to test them out.

More insidious was the slight adjustment to the five merged skills in my main build. It hadn't happened to all of them, but Cyclone Forms had shifted slightly. It had originally only counted spells in Ariette's Grimoire. The wording had changed to allow spells outside of it to trigger Wind Charges—and that included shadow spells now.

That had to be the deviation Eugene had been curious about. I needed to find some shadow spells and give them a try. Ellen might be able to help with that.

And then there was Energy Font and Brendan's Hymnal.

Eugene had said that I needed to merge them, but I couldn't see that happening before Energy Font hit C-Rank. And after that, it'd take a B-Rank core to get the job done. That…wasn't realistic. A B-Rank core could power all of Peoria for a month; it'd be enough to get us most of the way to buying the old GC center. I couldn't spend that kind of money on myself.

I tore myself away from the message and refocused on the job I was supposed to be doing.

"So, you're really going." Jessie stared at me from the comfy armchair. Her laptop sat on her legs, but it was closed, and her phone was nowhere to be seen.

"Yes," I said. "I'm going. I'll be out for two weeks Maybe less. The GC will—"

"The GC will have communications with the convoy's leadership, but you'll be out of range of Phoenix's cell service after two days, and the GC connection will be spotty. And there hasn't been any communication with Carlsbad in three days, so something might be up out there. I'll keep track of your progress as best I can." Jessie held up the GC tablet. "Just…you're sure about this, right?"

"I am."

"And you're sure you're sure?"

I sighed. "Yes, Jessie, I'm sure that I'm sure. Listen, Tara's going to be checking in on you periodically. Don't ignore her texts, or she will show up here. I've left a few extra numbers for some delvers I trust. If something goes wrong, use them. It'll be four days out, time to unload, four days back. That's assuming no delays, and with the White Sands in the way—not to mention Albuquerque, there could be some of those."

"Okay." Jessie's facade collapsed. A tear worked its way down her cheek. The laptop had disappeared. She stood up, walked slowly over to the counter where I'd laid out money, phone numbers, email addresses, and all sorts of other stuff. "I know you're going. I can't stop you, Kade. But you make sure you come back safe, okay?"

"I will."

"Promise me, like you promised Dad you'd take care of me."

"I will, Jessie," I said. I winced as my core popped a little, then stared her in the eyes. "I promise. If you're not sure you can handle two weeks without me, I can talk to Jeff, I guess. He'd—"

One eyebrow went up, and the facade rose again. She wiped the tear away. "You know I'm old enough to do this, right?"

"Yes. I believe in you. You've got this," I said.

"You too, Kade," Jessie said. She gave me an awkward side-hug. I returned it.

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"Oh, by the way, I'm having company over tonight."

"Who?" Jessie asked. "Ellen?"

"Yes—

"I knew it!" Her eyebrows went up.

"And also Jeff, Raul, Yasmin, and Sophie. The team's getting together here and taking the bus to the convoy's rally point," I finished.

"Oh."

Jessie sat on the floor. She'd had Kade pull over a nest of blankets from her bed, but Ellen was defending the comfy chair with a fury she couldn't match, Jeff and Yasmin had the couch locked down—and were getting way too handsy with each other for Jessie to want to be anywhere near them—and Kade and Raul had chairs from the kitchen. She didn't want to be uncomfy, so a blanket nest it was.

Sophia was still standing. She looked a little lost; Jessie didn't blame her. There weren't a lot of places to sit, and seven people was more than their apartment could really handle.

"You all bought the potions and kits we talked about, right?" Jeff asked for the twelfth time since he sat down. "We'll be out for a while, and—"

"Jeff, shut up," Yasmin said. "You're driving me crazy, and I'm already plenty pissed at you."

"Why?" Jeff asked.

"You know why."

"Okay, simmer down, you two," Kade said. He coughed once and stared at Jeff. "Before we go, I've got a few things to talk about. First, while we're gone, I have an assignment for Jessie. What's our 'guild funding' situation looking like?"

Jessie blinked from her blanket nest. Then she played around on her laptop until the spreadsheet appeared with all of her numbers on it. "We are…a little under a quarter of the way to being able to afford the GC building if we all went all-in, but it'll be a bit longer before we can get it updated and functional."

It'd be a while. Jessie couldn't help but look at the money they'd stockpiled. She was being optimistic. The GC sometimes cut costs for smaller guilds in the name of securing the city, but even so, it'd be a few months—at best. And with the entire guild's money-making delvers out of Phoenix, opportunities for easy money would be slim for the next two weeks.

The reality was that Kade's dream of being a proper guild was just that—a dream. And Jessie was nothing if not a dreamer, but…

But it just felt so unrealistic sometimes.

"I don't want to talk about the guild," Jeff said. "I want to talk about tomorrow and the next two weeks. We'll all need to be at the top of our game if we want to help the convoy."

"We're all at the top of our games," Yasmin interrupted. "We couldn't be more at the top of our games, given our ranks a month ago. You do realize I've been doing nothing but clearing portals, recovering from clearing portals, and prepping to clear portals, right? I'm tired, and I'm about to sleep on the ground for days."

"Yeah, babe, I know," Jeff said.

"Do you?"

"Yes, I do know. Yazzy, thank you for all the work you've been doing. It means a lot to me." Jeff wrapped an arm around her. She stiffened, then melted into it.

Jessie pretended to vomit.

"So," Kade said, "We're looking at a couple of months for the guild. That's doable. Faster than I thought, in fact."

"Well, Jeff's been contributing a lot over the last couple of weeks. A disturbing amount, really," Jessie said. "It's almost like he doesn't care about his own future."

"No, it's not that. I just…you've all busted your butts to support my mission. The least I can do is help with yours," Jeff said.

Jessie stared at him, eyes narrowed. She wasn't stupid, and since she'd been managing the 'guild's' finances, she'd noticed a few patterns. Kade put half of what he had left over after taking care of her into it. Ellen had always put everything she made into it, minus any delving-related purchases. And Jeff…up until a month ago, Jeff hadn't put a cent in. But a month ago, the floodgates had opened, and he was almost matching Ellen.

Ellen was obviously rich or something. You didn't get a car like Deimos without being rich. She could probably afford to go all-in on the guild. But Jeff had never shown signs of being wealthy. Ever. If he was pouring everything into the guild…what did that mean?

As the conversation shifted toward everyone's C-Rank power-ups and the dangers of the White Sands portal break, Jessie kept her eyes locked on Jeff.

He was up to something, but she had no idea what.

Ellen and I slipped out from the 'party' after an hour or two. The sun was setting over the 303 Wall, and Deimos was all warmed up and ready to rock. We rocketed toward the dying sun, then out into the Sonoran Desert west of Phoenix.

Then Deimos stopped, and we stepped out into the burnt, parched landscape. Ellen left her phone behind, and so did I.

"Bob's team tried to get into the convoy," Ellen said.

I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know the Traynor team was running that fast."

"They've been going for about a month. Top-end gear, the best money can buy, and a perfect team composition. Bob picked the best talent he could, but it's almost impossible to push as hard as we did. Did you…?"

"Damage my core? A little. Learning all five Laws and consolidating them at the same time was a little beyond me. I had to rely on Eugene for help. It shouldn't be an issue, though. I just need to avoid pushing to B-Rank too quickly."

"Cores don't grow as quickly as us, Kade," Ellen said. Her hand reached out, and her fingers intertwined with mine. "We both need to take it slower."

I nodded slowly. "You too, huh?"

"Me too. 'Yazzy' probably busted hers as well. She was a bit ahead of us, but even so…" Ellen trailed off. "Mine's not too bad, though. A week or two. Maybe less.

"Ellen," I said quietly. I looked back at the parked car, now a hundred yards away. There was nothing out here. Nothing but salt cedar, palo verde trees, and a few stray portal monsters. "I deviated from my Path."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that, while I was working on understanding the Second Law of the Godray, something got in the way. It was supposed to be a Law about the power of light—I think meaning Cheddar—overcoming the clouds. But instead, the clouds got empowered, and the Law changed. It turned into the First Law of the Stormlight. Eugene thought it was interesting. He also said I needed to merge my last two skills."

"Can you even merge them? Are they compatible? No one does C-Rank merges," Ellen said.

I nodded. "I know. You end up with diluted, weak skills that don't do either of the things you want well enough. But Eugene was pretty insistent."

Then I took a deep breath. What I was about to ask was…it'd be messy. But the deviation from the Stormsteel Path had opened up opportunities, like the God of Thunder said. It'd be foolish not to work toward those opportunities more actively.

"I think Eugene might be right, though. He said something about the deviant skill offering me power in a greater breadth than his. And when I consolidated them, I ended up with the Law of the Shadowed Storm."

"Shadowed. Not Shattered?"

"Yeah, Shadowed."

"Interesting." Ellen nodded slowly. Then she seemed to gather herself as if preparing to say something. I watched, waiting for her to speak. "I might know something. But it'll be impossible without open skill slots. We'll both need one. And that means…"

"That means we have to play the long game," I finished. "We don't merge these skills. Not until we know what we're doing and what we're aiming for. That'll open up a slot on our terms, that we can fill with whatever we need."

"Agreed."

Ellen's hand was still in mine. I looked down at it. So did she. Then she smiled. "This is kind of nice."

"It is." I let the moment linger for another few seconds. Then I let go. She did too. "Let's head back and get some sleep. The convoy's rolling out tomorrow, and we'll need to be at our best."

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