Once Tate was done getting treated for his injury–and Lexie was done fielding Emma's questions about the nature of their relationship–he was released back into Lexie's care. They walked out of the hospital room, but Emma seemed to have alerted a few people that Lexie had a boy-slash-friend with her because there were more nurses in the hallways than normal, and they were hanging around doing nothing when the two passed by. They also kept throwing Lexie secretive smiles.

It was odd and annoying.

It wasn't like Tate was the first guy friend she'd ever had. There was Dewie. And Abernathy, Doyle and Chris though she'd never brought them around. But for some reason, everyone at the hospital was treating it as if this was such a monumental occasion and it made Lexie and probably Tate uncomfortable.

Especially when Frank, who was sitting in one of the waiting chairs, reading a physical magazine (something that was rare to find in Earth 9) looked up from it and said, "Whoa whoa whoa. What do we have here? Who's this?"

"This is Tate," Lexie said.

"Tate…?"

Lexie almost said Reynolds then recalled that they were in another dimension so his last name probably wouldn't be the same as it had been on Earth 2. Conrad had mentioned Tate's new last name at one point but she didn't remember. She turned to Tate to volunteer his last name and he put his hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched over in discomfort.

"Tate Graham."

"Graham…" Frank frowned. "Who are your parents?"

"I don't feel comfortable sharing that," he said.

That had Frank raising a suspicious eyebrow. "And I don't feel comfortable with a boy whose parents I don't know hanging around my dungeon teacher's daughter." He peered at Tate closely, his blue eyes piercing. "What are you hiding, young man?"

Tate looked to Lexie who said, "He's not hiding anything. He's just a kid who doesn't want to talk about his parents, for probably valid reasons."

"Yeah, I don't buy that. You know there are a bunch of young assassins running around these days. They all don't like talking about their parents. He might be one of them."

Lexie snorted. Tate, an assassin? That was almost as ridiculous as him being a young solo delver.

"Who would send an assassin after me?" Lexie asked. "And why?"

"It could be any number of people for a number of reasons. Don't forget, you're the Archmage's daughter and you're going to be our very own Hovelton-bred genius." He waggled his eyebrows, pride oozing from his tone. "Your father told us all about your S-Rank intelligence."

"Of course he did." Lexie wasn't surprised. Aiden always liked to brag about her achievements no matter how miniscule they were. It was nice in a way, but it also meant that random people around town knew things about her that she might not necessarily want them to.

"A level 7 S-Rank intelligence means you're going to be some kind of revolutionary scientist or something. That's my theory, anyway. With scores that high, your impact on this world can be seen as nothing less than sheer rebellion. Heck, you could probably change the system or something. Might even make us better off than the Fae did." He rubbed his chin and spared Tate a cutting look. "I bet a lot of people wouldn't like that. They might want to assassinate you for it."

"That's a bit far-fetched, Frank."

"No, it's not. Heck, the last guy who reached a Level 10 Intellect as an S-Rank got taken out by the government. Granted, they said he was a real bad guy. His name was The Alchemist or something and he was supposedly a villain. But still."

"Right." That must have been who Aiden was talking about when he said there was only one other person who ever reached a Level 10 in intelligence. The one person he didn't want Lexie to know about. Lexie decided to look him up later. "Anyway, Tate's not an assassin."

"I'm a mundane," Tate said. "So I couldn't even be one if I tried probably,"

Frank didn't miss a beat. "That's exactly what an assassin would say."

There was an awkward moment of silence where everyone stared at each other because Tate didn't quite know how to convince the other man that he wasn't an assassin and Frank appeared to want to intimidate him by looking into his skull.

"What are your intentions toward our Lexie?" Frank suddenly barked out in a drill sergeant voice that made them both jerk.

"Um, friendship?" Tate answered.

"Who are your parents?"

"I'm not telling you that."

"Where are you from?"

"Old Moulding."

"You got any affiliation with the Knife Ears or the Sabertooths?"

"The who?"

"Okay, Frank we've got to get going now. Nice talking to you." Lexie began dragging Tate away before Frank could get started on a racist rant about the Fae and the Orcs again.

That wasn't the only one they met on the way out. Carissa, who was in the waiting room talking with a patient, winked at her. Godfrey frowned and muttered something that sounded like "She's too young for that.'

And the worst was yet to come.

While they were walking down the stairs, Max was walking up muttering in annoyance while holding a piece of cloth over his bleeding hand. The blood had completely soaked the cloth and was dripping on the ground, leaving a trail behind him. Max caught sight of her when she'd almost reached him. They all stopped somewhere around the middle and eyed each other. Lexie's eyes were trained on the wound on his hand and Max's eyes were trained on Tate.

"What happened?" Lexie asked.

"Drilling accident. Not system-healing fast enough." He jabbed his chin forward. "Who's the stray?"

"He's not a stray Max, be nice. He's Tate." Lexie had a crazy intrusive thought to regurgitate everything Tate had told her about dungeons, just to see what Uncle Max would do. Did he know about it? If it truly was as secret as Tate said, then probably not.

Lexie couldn't tell him, at least not now. Not only did she not have proof, but she also didn't know what impact that kind of information would have on her Uncle. Would it make him more cautious or less cautious, more safe or less safe?

"Is this Tate a friend of yours?" Max asked.

"Yeah. A boy who is my friend, but not my boyfriend." Lexie didn't know why she'd said that. Maybe because she'd repeated it to Emma so often during their visit that it now just slipped out naturally.

"I see." Max cocked an eyebrow and his look turned fiercer.

To Tate's credit, he only looked a little spooked even though her Uncle was undoubtedly a scary-looking man. Tate didn't visibly cower or flinch even as Max stepped up close, into his personal space.

"If I wasn't about to die of blood loss in about five seconds I would grill you to hell and high heaven," Max said. "But just know that I'm watching you, kid."

Tate swallowed then, and nodded.

"Max." She heard Emma call from behind them. "You're bleeding out all over my clean floors. Get in here so we can stitch you up."

Max gave Tate one last piercing look and then continued up the stairs. Tate and Lexie watched him go in, with Emma scolding him all the way.

"This is a weird town," Tate said.

"Tell me about it," Lexie responded.

"I'm guessing you don't bring boys home often."

Lexie shrugged. "Well, there's Dewie but I'm not sure he counts. At least not to these people. Anyway, let's go to the place I was going to show you."

"You mean this wasn't just an elaborate ploy to get me to see a medic?"

"Partially," she said. "I thought you might ignore me if I just told you to, so I had to bring you here myself. But there was also something I wanted you to see."

"Hopefully, it's not another possessive Uncle who wants to kick my ass."

"Hopefully," Lexie said but she did think about the fact that they might run into someone else she knew. Like Merryweather. Or Luke. Those two would probably be civilized though. Except Merryweather would tease her, and Luke would ask more questions than the FBI.

Now that Lexie thought about it, everyone's reaction to Tate had been a little bizarre, almost as though they were automatically suspicious of him. Was it just the boyfriend thing? What was it about Tate that seemed dubious to people?

She ran a scanning glance over him, and he stared back at her, eyebrows raising in question.

Lexie guessed she could see it. If she didn't know him from before, Tate would seem a little…shifty. Not that he looked threatening necessarily. He was thin nearly to the point of emaciation, odd considering he was making bank with his dungeon gig. His hair was messy and he was only a few inches taller than she was.

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But there was just a quiet intensity in his eyes and something slightly savage resting underneath his cool demeanor that reminded her of the way he'd looked right before he'd asked Robbie to shoot him.

Most of the time, he hid those things under flat expressions. Once in a while, he laid it bare for everyone to see. He was like a snake coiled in wait, watching everyone walk by. He wouldn't go out of his way to harm you, but he would definitely bite if threatened and he wouldn't stop until the point of death.

She remembered his fight with Shadow and pictured his smile. She may not like Shadow but she had to agree with him on one thing. There was something not quite sane about Tate and she didn't know how much she could trust the things he was telling her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Tate asked after enduring her perusal for nearly a whole minute into their walk.

"Like what?"

"Like one of Mrs. Lancaster's math problems," he said. "That's the look you always had on your face when she talked about differential equations. Annoyance and confusion."

"Oh." Lexie hadn't known he was paying that much attention to her.

She wanted to ask him why he was, but she didn't want to make him skittish all over again.

"Never mind," she said instead. They walked in silence for several seconds and once again she got the sense that Tate was taking in the environment and was totally perplexed by Hovelton.

Lexie chuckled.

"It grows on you," she answered his unasked question. It hadn't had to for Lexie. She'd thought Hovelton was charming from pretty much the first moment she got here, but she understood over the months that a lot of people didn't. A lot of people saw Hovelton as too quiet and boring compared to places like Arcadia.

Lexie liked Arcadia but she didn't think she could ever live there. Too noisy. Reminded her too much of New York. Hovelton had more nature, more peace, and more character. It was like a dream home she'd never even thought to want.

Lexie finally stopped at her location a few paces from her home. She pointed in the distance. "About a few miles in that direction, an underground unstable dungeon sprouted. An infant eldritch creature escaped from it, or at least that was what we thought at the time." She turned back to him. "Is it possible that the creature had been used to create the dungeon?"

He shrugged. "It's possible, although highly unlikely that a creature would become untethered from the dungeon it created. In theory, the dungeon should not exist without the eldritch being attached to it. But with unstable dungeons anything is possible."

"What is your theory on how unstable dungeons are created?"

"I think it's pretty much from improperly created dungeons. If you were trying to create a dungeon, but you weren't experienced, it's easy to mess up somewhere and make it unstable."

"Can a stable dungeon become unstable?"

"Yes, if you messed with its core. But again, most people don't have the ability to do that."

Lexie nodded. Well, that certified her theory.

"My first day here, an unstable dungeon spawned, less than a quarter mile from my house."

Tate's eyebrows ruffled in confusion and Lexie continued.

"Do you think that had anything to do with me being here?" she asked. "Do you think that someone died and then someone else, maybe a demon Lord, tried to use the dungeon to bring her back? Maybe using that attribute you mentioned, about dungeons being able to grant wishes and give powerful gifts? Maybe they tried to wish her soul back but instead, something happened and I got dragged here instead."

Tate didn't have a single thread of recognition in his face. If anything, he looked even more confused. "What are you talking about?"

She sighed. It was a theory she'd crafted just a few minutes ago, and not a complete one, but one that might have explained her presence. She pictured it like this: Lexie Sparrowfoot suffered a soul injury with her soul trying to extricate itself from her body. It succeeded and she died as a result. Aiden came and found her and was so devastated that he called Naem for help. Naem suggested that they create a dungeon (nothing to say that Eldritch couldn't create dungeons too) to call Lexie's soul back using the wish-granting thing that Tate had mentioned, but instead, it had grabbed the wrong Lexie–it had gotten Lexie Evans from a different dimension who had died around the same time. That was how she got put into Lexie Sparrowfoots' body.

Of course, there were several things wrong with this theory, number one being that she wasn't at all sure that was how the dungeon wish-granting thing worked and it didn't explain how the ISTS was involved.

But there were a few things that pointed to this being possible, like an unstable dungeon spawning when Lexie Sparrowfoot was awoken from her coma. Could it really be a coincidence?

Nevertheless, Lexie suspected she was moderately off-base just from how confused Tate looked.

"That's not what happened," he said simply.

"Then what did happen?" She couldn't hide the frustration in her voice. "I know you say you can't tell me but seriously Tate at least give me some clue. I'm just walking around here blind and apparently I'm supposed to be doing something in this new world and I don't know what it is. It's driving me insane."

"Hey, relax," he said and put his hand up like he was trying to ward off her hysteria. "Relax. Just breathe."

He inhaled deeply and she copied him doing the same. They exhaled together.

He was quietly thoughtful for a few seconds. Then, he looked resigned. "Listen, I can't tell you everything. ISTS rules forbid it, and I'm not even supposed to be talking to you about it at all. But I can.I guess drop hints here and there that might lead you to the right conclusion. As long as the hints aren't too obvious, it won't get flagged and I won't get in trouble."

Lexie was shocked that he had even made the offer. "But isn't that risky? And according to the rules, the risk is soul termination."

He shrugged weakly. "I'm willing to take the risk. As long as you're willing to help me with the dungeons too."

Lexie gaped at him. "You would risk full soul termination just so I can go dungeon raiding–"

"Exploring."

"–dungeon exploring with you."

"A soul for a soul," he said as he rocked himself back and forth. "I understand the risk that I'm asking you to take too. As safe and prepared as we can be, shit happens sometimes. I get why you have reservations. But I need to do this. I need to. And if I'm going to ask you to risk your life with me, I should be taking a similar risk myself. So just think about the offer, okay?"

Lexie was still stunned silent, gaping at him.

Tate gave her a grim smile and a clipped nod. "I guess I'll see you at training. Give me your answer then."

"It's probably not going to be a yes," she warned as he walked away.

"I wouldn't be so sure."

"I don't know if I'm that curious about it," she called out after him.

"Yeah, you are," was his response.

As she watched him become a dot in the sunset, she sighed and trekked back to her house, her mind filled with everything he'd just said.

Questions tormented her when she walked into her home to find her father asleep on the couch. Aiden's eyes were closed, his hand thrown over his head. A faint sheen of sweat covered his forehead, and his lips were moving. He muttered to himself in his sleep and it was clear that something was bothering him.

Lexie went close and squatted beside him. She finally confronted the realization she'd had.

Part of the reason why she'd come up with the theory she'd told Tate about, why she was sure that Aiden had used the dungeon to summon her soul to Earth 9, was because she was pretty sure that was what he'd attempted to do with her mother. That was what his crime was.

Here were the clues:

Aiden, being such close friends with Naem, probably already knew what Dungeons were made of. Aiden was off-earth when he was arrested, doing something that virtually no one on Earth knew he'd done, something kept very top secret. Something Aiden himself had admitted was deserving of punishment.

The most damning thing of all, Aiden could make pocket dimensions.

What if, with Naem's help, he'd learned how to make more powerful ones? What if he'd used Naem's power to attempt to create a powerful enough dungeon to bring Lara back? Or maybe he'd just raided powerful dungeons and tried to use their cores to make a wish? What if doing that numerous times unsuccessfully had led to the creation of unstable dungeons that plagued Earth today?

Turmoil turned her stomach. As she watched her father now, Lexie realized something else. The first night when she'd eavesdropped on Aiden and Litchie, Aiden had mentioned that he was having nightmares about 'her' again and didn't know if it was really 'her' or if he was losing his mind. 'Her' could only refer to Lara. And so, Aiden probably thought Lara was somewhere still alive and trapped in a dungeon. She was a good fighter after all, and might have been able to beat the monsters, but now she was stuck in a never-ending nightmare. That was probably what drove Aiden to do what he did in the first place.

He would do anything to get her out.

Lexie stared at him and wondered how she was supposed to feel. She didn't want to believe it because it would mean that Aiden had lied to her when he'd told her he didn't know where the unstable dungeons had come from. He'd seemed genuinely confused but maybe it was simply their frequency that startled him. Maybe he didn't think he'd caused damage to that extent.

Or maybe he was better at feigning ignorance than she'd thought.

Lexie knew she was supposed to be horrified by what he'd done. And there was a horrific aspect in that his crime had inadvertently affected so many people, and people may have been hurt or even died because of it.

She couldn't help but sympathize with her father though. She knew why he'd done what he'd done, so it was kind of hard to really blame him even if she wanted to.

Aiden suddenly bolted up, and his eyes flashed open and Lexie jerked. His eyes fell on her and he said, "Lexie?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it's me. Sorry, if I scared you. You were drooling and I wanted a closer–"

He cut her off by pulling her into a crushing hug, his arms shaking as he held her close. She hugged him back.

"Are you okay?" she asked and she felt him nod.

"Yes. Sorry. Just a nightmare."

Lexie stiffened. Was he dreaming about Lara again?

The thought scared her.

Lexie would like to think that her father learned his lesson from the first time and wouldn't attempt to create a dungeon like that again. But love could make people do crazy things, or so she was told.

He can't create a dungeon even if he wants to. He's powerless.

Lexie's eyes craned over to the crack at the back of his tilling bands. She'd been keeping track of it ever since she'd first seen it and it hadn't gotten any bigger. She didn't know if that meant that he didn't know it was there.

"I'm going to order food," she said after she pulled back. "You can go back to sleep."

"No, I'm awake now." He sat up and stretched. "I'll make us something. Oh and my head of department got back to me today. He said it would be fine for me to have an intern starting next semester."

"That's great. Abernathy'll be happy." The worry didn't leave her as she watched him go to the kitchen.

Lexie headed up to her room, her mind chaotic with too many thoughts to function. She tried to shift it back to something else, something she could control. The card for which she'd received an intent today.

Kill Her Wind.

She didn't know if she'd perceived that right but the instinct felt guttural. The intent was undeniable. The magic was there created waiting for her to siphon it.

No sooner than she'd sat at her desk, the door of her bedroom opened again. Aiden stood there with a frown on his face and stared at her. "Lexie, what is this I hear about you having a boyfriend?"

Lexie sighed her annoyance. "Who told you?"

"About ten different people texted me about it. You're too young for boyfriends, Lexie. We haven't even had the talk yet."

"I know, Dad. Tate's just a friend."

Aiden looked unconvinced. "You know I was about your age when I met my first love."

Oh no. "Dad, I really don't want to listen to this."

"Her name was Wisteria Calmpotter. She was a Lord's daughter and was quite beautiful. Very bright too. And she always smiled at me whenever she visited us. Her brother was a scholar in our village and he encouraged me to reveal my feelings to her. Her father liked me too. So I thought it was a done deal, pretty much. Until I saw her giggling in the corner with Victor Valdam." He made a face. "I was heartbroken but I couldn't hold it against her. Valdam was strong and was more physically appealing than I could ever hope to be. And in retrospect, they were a much better match than me and her would have been." He smiled. "Now, as an adult, I only look back on those memories with fondness. But as a child, those things can feel world-ending, and I simply don't think you're ready for that, Lexie."

Lexie shut her eyes, rubbed her temple and said for what felt like the thousandth time, "Tate is a boy. Who is my friend. He's a boy slash friend. But not. my. boyfriend."

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