Thalgodin flared his wings, stretching them to their full breadth. He stood before a fort boss that had spawned in rather randomly. As far as Myrsvai knew, the fort bosses were usually a normal mob a level or two higher than the rest.

This one, a hobgoblin of impressive physique, stood apart from the rest of the elven fort they had been assaulting. Diphinadra was obviously still influencing the mobs and Thalgodin's training.

It was entirely unclear how long it would last, so taking advantage of the situation was important. And, luckily, Thalgodin was still in a fervor, ready to fight.

"Why do you have so many arms?" the hobgoblin shouted. He flexed before readying his spear. "Is it for self pleasure purposes?"

Thalgodin beat his wings and launched himself across the top of the fortress tower. To everyone's surprise, the hobgoblin met the demon's axe with his spear, stopping the attack. Unfortunately for the hobgoblin, Thalgodin had three more arms that each held a sword. He skewered the mob and tore through, separating the hobgoblin into three sections.

Thalgodin quickly sheathed a sword, caught the spear, and launched it at an elven wizard that was approaching on patrol. The spear didn't pierce the armor, but the impact dented it with such force that the elf vomited blood and collapsed.

"This is too easy," Thalgodin said. "Back into the dungeon?"

"We could," Myrsvai said.

"Yes," Suta said quickly and jabbed the air a few times. "Murder vampires."

"It's all hobgoblins and elves on the first floors, then specters, which we are not well equipped to defeat." Myrsvai leaned on his staff. The looks Thalgodin and Suta were exchanging were obvious. The two had already made up their mind, and now they just had to make Myrsvai think it was his idea. He wasn't so unaware. "The experience we would get at two shards is significant, though you would be without the shard bonus, Thalgodin."

"Suta will have the bonus." Thalgodin sheathed the rest of his swords and placed the axe in the holder on his back.

"If you're certain." Myrsvai waited until Suta nodded enthusiastically.

They had scavenged plenty of food while raiding the forts to last for another few weeks, especially when only Myrsvai needed to actually consume food. If Thalgodin grew weak, Myrsvai would unsummon him to let him rest in the Abyss before returning. Realistically, it was a strong plan. The first floors against hobgoblins, goblins, and elves would give him ample time to prepare a counter to the specters, and they could leave when they wanted.

"You've done it," Myrsvai said. "I've convinced myself. We can go back to the Fortress."

Suta jumped into the air in celebration.

"Calm down. Let's finish clearing this fort fir—"

Suta bolted away before Myrsvai could finish talking. Another elf patrol was just reaching the top of stairs when Suta collided with them, spraying blood as his fists smashed them to bits.

***

Egnatia wasn't surprised to see Nastya waiting with the others at a campfire on the third floor. She was cooking some of their food while Voolyn laid near-lifeless against a tree and Olena sat silently nearby.

"Good company?" Egnatia asked.

Nastya grunted. She looked up from the fire, focusing on Egnatia's face. "No visual change. I'm assuming it was successful?"

Egnatia held out a hand and formed a ball of blue abyssal fire. "Perfectly."

Nastya pulled a cut of meat from the fire and extended the fork to Egnatia. "Well done."

Egnatia tore the meat from the fork and ate it like an uncivilized monster. She desperately needed to restore some of the energy she had lost from fusion. It was far more exhausting than she had expected.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Scaltari."

Olena held a piece of cooked meat in her hands and squeezed it oddly. Even eating it looked unusual for the blinded, damaged wizard. She would be the last of them to fuse, and with each floor leveled to Nastya's five shards, the climb would only get more difficult, and the fusion, if successful, would be unbelievably powerful.

Nastya helped Voolyn eat. The huge soldier could move his one arm and one leg, but he had only said one word since the attack on Althowin.

"Revenge."

He looked into Egnatia's eyes with fierce intensity. When it came to a battle of willpower to complete the fusion, she had no doubt that Voolyn would crush any mob.

"Is there any reason to spend time on this floor?" Egnatia ate the last bit of meat and looked into the distance. Other fires burned on other islands where scaltari mobs waited. For now, the water was low, letting them traverse by foot.

"No. We will make our way to the stairs when we've all eaten." Nastya wiped her hands on the sand and sat by the fire again. "You need more food after fusing." She stuck a whole scaltari leg directly into the fire. "I need you at your full strength."

Egnatia sat at Olena's side and watched the fire flow over the leg. Juices bubbled and sizzled all over as the meat scent wafted her way. Her stomach rumbled.

***

Owin sat uneasy in a wide room. There was plenty of space for everyone, but having so many people gathered in one small area felt unnatural. Almost everyone he knew well sat around him, and yet the mood was somber.

Katalin sat on his right, with Ernie beside her. Shade was on his left with Sofia beside him. Potilia, Sanem, Raif, Cixilo, Miya, and Siora all sat behind him.

As Althowin and Zezog sparred, the rest of them had enjoyed time together, telling stories and eating food. Well, everyone but Shade and Owin.

It had been difficult to enjoy anything when the entire building quaked. Glasses and plates were shattering just from the vibrations of clashes across the building in a reinforced arena. If they had fought anywhere else in the world, cities would've been destroyed.

Massive cracks had slithered from the arena, spider-webbing across most of the compound. Even now, sitting in a room on the opposite side, Owin was sure he could see hairline cracks all across the ceiling.

The compound had survived one of Althowin's explosions without even the slightest damage, but one sparring session between 7 Shard Heroes was enough to nearly cause the walls to collapse.

Now, Althowin stood confidently before the small crowd with Chorsay and Zezog flanking her. Owin wasn't sure if everyone was pretending that Althowin's face wasn't bruised and swollen or if they somehow didn't notice. Zezog had a few injuries still recovering, but it was clear who had won their bout.

"I'm going to lay out the plan as clearly as possible so none of you have to ask me any questions. I don't want any questions." Althowin glared directly at Shade. "No questions."

"What if I'm confused?" Shade asked.

Althowin sat on a table and leaned close to Zezog. "I think I'm going to find a way to permanently kill that skeleton."

"You weren't whispering," Shade said.

"I'm aware." Althowin gestured with her metal hand. Basolia appeared in front of her, currently as a solid ball of shadow. "Any final stupid questions before we move past this segment?"

Shade nudged Owin.

"Alright," Althowin said. "I have a few main parts to this plan and what will happen in the next weeks here. First, Chorsay and I will be going to Atrevaar. Indulf is there currently following up on the, well, let's call it an incident for now. We will get some answers while Zezog will remain here to protect the compound and all of you in it." Althowin paused upon hearing some gasps and seeing expressions change. "For those of you unaware or too stupid to figure it out," she gestured to her left. "This is Zezog the Barbarian. Yes, he is alive. Yes, he is an elf. Yes, he was a farmer until now."

"I don't think people were going to ask that one, Al," Zezog said quietly. He smiled warmly and nodded to everyone gathered.

"The actual Zezog?" Cixilo asked. "The Barbarian?"

Zezog nodded again.

"And I thought there'd been an earthquake," Cixilo said.

"What did I say about questions?" Althowin sent a glare toward the umbra before recomposing herself. "While Chorsay and I are on a lovely jaunt through the ruins of Atrevaar—"

"Excuse me," Chorsay said. He stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Owin shifted, but Potilia was already on her feet scrambling toward the door.

"Sorry, excuse me!" she shouted. She stumbled into the door, opened it, shouted another apology, then slammed the door.

Althowin just stared, mouth agape.

"Keep going," Katalin urged quietly.

"Okay . . ." Althowin shrugged it off and gestured to Basolia, who morphed into what looked like a ton of glass bottles. "I have some potions to finish for Owin, which should take about . . ."

"One day," Basolia said.

"One day," repeated Althowin. "Then I'll be off and every one of you will be working. Zezog is keeping you all safe. Katalin, Ernie, and Miya will be working on assignments." She paused upon noticing Basolia shift into peoples' shapes as Althowin said their names. "What are you doing?"

"Instructions were to visualize your words," the specter said.

"Visualize them less." Althowin rubbed at the bruise on her cheek. "How do I get any work done when everyone around me can't follow directions properly?" She held up a finger before the specter could answer. "The rest of you who aren't alchemists are going to train. Zezog will be helping with training when he can. Owin will need help learning to move with his new attributes, the loud-mouthed skeleton needs to be trained in more forms of combat, and the rest of you need to learn how to use your shards properly."

Sanem raised her hand.

Althowin sighed. "What?"

"I'm not a Shard Hero."

"Good point. You're a citizen, as far as I'm concerned. Until that baby falls out, you should remain as far from combat as possible. And after . . ." Althowin shrugged. "Retire or something."

Basolia shifted into a flat black disk.

"Last thing," Althowin said. "Fusions. Sofia, can you join us up here?"

Sofia hesitantly walked up and leaned against the wall where Chorsay had been standing.

"The three of us are the only heroes who have undergone fusion. It's a difficult thing to understand. The process when viewed from outside looks rather simple. A hero touches a mob, sometimes lights or magic flash, then you either have a hero that looks the same or looks like the mob to some degree. Simple, right?"

Althowin paused and looked over them as if expecting some type of answer. Owin wanted to point out that she had complained about every interruption, but it didn't seem like the kind of thing worth mentioning at the moment.

"Do you want us to answer?" Shade asked.

"No." Althowin gestured to Basolia.

The specter morphed into the Kitsune. It looked like a harmless little fox, but as it sat there, it grew bigger with more tails appearing. Longer claws, and bigger, fiercer eyes became the focus of the image until it looked like the omen would jump from Basolia's shadow.

Althowin snapped, making Basolia shift back to the calm, little fox. "Apologies. The memory of the Omen can get out of hand quickly." She smiled as if her sentence hadn't just made Owin's brow furrow in thought.

He suddenly had so many questions about Basolia and the Omen, but asking a question now could just anger Althowin, who already seemed on the verge of snapping.

"I'm about to give you an in depth lesson on fusion because I don't think I'll have another chance. How many of you are good at being students?" She held up a hand. "Don't answer. My mistake for asking. Here's the deal: I will be sending some of you off to get your second shards, then straight to a new tower, or maybe the same one, to fuse with something that will be determined today. For Owin and Shade, they will need to go fuse soon. Very soon. I don't want any one of you confused about what happens or how things happen during fusion. So, you are going to be good students whether you like it or not and listen to this succinct, well thought out lecture. Got it?" She didn't give them any time to answer before continuing.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"There are three ways a fusion can end. First, the hero fuses and has no complications. If they are truly more powerful, they will fuse without any visible change. Usually, these fusions are somewhat useless in my opinion. They can provide new spells, abilities, or mob feats, which can be helpful, but since the mob is weak, all of those things tend to be less useful. Right?"

Zezog nodded slowly.

Sofia just stared blankly at the Kitsune form.

"Great participation." Althowin held up two fingers. "Second, the fusion ends with visible changes." She gestured to herself, Sofia, and Zezog. "This is usually when the mob is powerful. This can be purely because of a shard or level difference, or because it's an elite mob like a floor boss or a unique mob like a Horror or Omen. The visual changes have their own benefits, but it's also a sign of struggle. It means there was a point, if even just for a moment, where we almost lost the battle. The bigger the change, the harder the fight."

"It made my skin paler and my ears pointed," Zezog said. "The elf was a soldier, so I gained soldier abilities to work with my berserker class."

Owin hadn't considered what class the mobs were having a role. It was obvious Zezog had fused with an elf, but figuring out the benefits or changes never really occurred to Owin. He knew Zezog was stronger than him, and that's where most of the thinking had ended.

"Sofia? Want to share anything?" Althowin asked with a surprisingly gentle voice.

"Claverstan Chief Engineer at the Forge of Divine Light on the ninth floor."

Basolia changed to a full claverstan, which was Owin's first time seeing the humanoid rat creatures. It looked like it wore armor with tubes running all over.

"I remember that mob," Siora said. "Is it the floor boss?"

Sofia nodded slowly. "He agreed to let me fuse. I'd spent lots of time in the Forge. It ain't easy, even when they let you."

"Mobs can allow a hero to fuse, but that doesn't guarantee success," Althowin said. She gestured, and Basolia switched to a silhouette of Myrsvai and Suta. "The Maimed Magus is going to fuse with one of his own summons. Sound right, Owin?"

Owin nodded. "Thalgodin. A neural demon from the Plains of Awakening."

"If the demon grows powerful enough or receives a boon from a Lord of the Abyss, Myrsvai could still struggle with the fusion or take on visual aspects. And this is assuming this neural demon isn't trying to manipulate Myrsvai into giving it a human body to use in the world."

Althowin smiled at Owin's sudden change in expression. "That brings me to the third point. If a hero loses the battle of will, which we'll get into later, the mob takes over. The visual changes might be the same as a successful fusion, but the mind of the combined entity is owned by the mob. It took months before I stopped hearing the Kitsune's voice in my mind. Eventually, it became part of my own thoughts as our minds became one." She paused, gesturing to the others.

"I still hear the engineer's voice," Sofia said. "Giving me tips."

"The elf has been silent for a long time." Zezog smiled. "It's difficult to remember that long ago."

"If a hero loses a battle on an isolated floor, I assume they just exist in perpetuity or until the god of the tower wipes that instance of the floor away," Althowin said. "If it's on a common floor, they will exist for at least the half hour before respawning in their previous form, though there have been times they've existed longer and needed to be killed if it was a floor boss or a unique mob. That's what Magna Regum originally specialized in, but now they're just like any other hero company."

"Bounty hunters sometimes do that. I've handled a few," Sofia said.

"We don't have as much information about what happens when a hero loses the battle of wills because there's never been someone to give us that information. All we know is they are always dangerous. There's never been a peaceful failed fusion. When someone like a mender or magus fuses outside the towers, it can unleash a mob on the world. It would be considered illegal if there was anyone to arrest after, but the hero is already dead in this scenario. Bounty hunters also deal with those if they happen. It's rare. I think it's happened once in my life."

Zezog nodded slowly. "Arlette."

"Yeah." Althowin gestured, and Basolia shifted again, looking like an unspecified hero and a scaltari mob. "The battle of willpower is how a fusion begins. To start it, you need to be in contact with the mob. Constant contact. Obviously, this usually involves a battle beforehand. Even if the mob has been stabbed through the heart and is near death, it is not a guarantee you will win the battle. Willpower is entirely in your mind. It is your drive to accomplish something. Your strength of heart. It's not something measured in attributes. There are no numbers to say if your willpower is weak or strong. The ability to resist something like horrific damage is one of the only ways we ever see willpower outside of fusion itself. Otherwise, it is something only you can know. On the verge of death or defeat, do you give in or do you push on? When everything is going wrong, do you have the strength to persevere? If you don't know, then your willpower is probably too weak to win against most mobs."

She finally stopped. Basolia melted back into a floating puddle of shadow.

"Fuck," Katalin said quietly.

Althowin looked at Ernie. "What are you going to fuse with?"

He crossed his arms and shrugged calmly.

"Good answer because I've already picked for you and Katalin." Althowin pointed at Katalin next.

"You already said you know for me."

Althowin grinned. "Owin and Shade."

"Why do you put us together?" Owin asked. "Shade can't fuse."

"Familiar are directly tied to their summoner. Sofia, can you explain?" Althowin asked.

Sofia took a step forward and turned her back to them. A huge metal ball fell from the bottom of her backpack. It bounced before settling and raising antennae. A window opened, revealing raging fire and magma within the ball.

"This is Slag," she said, gesturing to the ball. "Before I fused, Slag was a normal wizard familiar. She looked like a little ogre."

The familiar beeped.

"Shush. Fusion made her a claverstan bot that comes from the engineer backpack."

"Familiars take on aspects of the fusion. Some more than others. With Shade, we have no idea what might happen," Althowin said. "I searched. There are no records of a Withered Shade in anything I could find."

"The name 'Cursed' appears in two hundred books within the context of a unique mob or other creature, or in a way that is near our understanding of 'Cursed'," Basolia said. "The word 'King' is associated with 'Cursed' in numerous works without providing names or deeper context. The most notable is a passage from A History of the Gods' Towers in which it is stated, 'The gods watch from their lofty towers, turning the kings to Cursed and passing judgments on all.'"

Althowin listened, nodding slowly. "Fusion could affect Shade. We have no way to know."

"Pick something sexy," Shade whispered, nudging Owin.

As stressed and confused as he was, Owin couldn't help but laugh.

"No, Shade," he finally said.

"I wouldn't recommend picking anything based on appearance. It's entirely about utility. You make up for your weaknesses or you strengthen a major aspect of your style. For Zezog, merging soldier and berserker made him the single best hand-to-hand fighter of all time. There is no weakness in close quarters. He has no openings."

With that statement, Zezog smiled at Owin.

That would have been good to know before all their sparring. Owin was always looking for openings and trying everything he could to land a hit, and he never really could.

"Sofia fused with an engineer that gave her the equivalent of alchemy for claverstan, letting her create things with metal and lava. It wasn't overcoming a weakness, but it provided a new set of utility and a new way to fight. Correct?" Althowin asked.

"Yeah. Basically." She idly pulled out a cigar, realized what she was doing, and stashed it in a pocket.

Althowin pointed to Cixilo. "What's an umbra's weakness?"

"Oh." Cixilo pulled her hood down and glanced around at all the eyes suddenly on her. "Range."

"That's a weakness of a lot of classes. Umbras can teleport, so what's the trouble?" Althowin asked, obviously goading her.

"We have cooldowns and teleporting can't always get us all the way there. Hunters can hit us from a long ways away, and wizards and magi can stop us from getting close. Even if we do, soldiers, berserkers, and assassins are better fighters." Cixilo wrinkled her nose and looked into the distance. "Something that made my cooldowns faster—"

"Not an option," Althowin said.

"Then more abilities or getting my own ranged attacks would be the only options. There are some umbra ranged spells, but none are strong." Cixilo opened her index. "Can abilities be combined?"

"After fusion, yes. If you became a hunter, you could coat your arrows in poison or apparition damage, and so on," Althowin said.

Basolia shifted into a hunter, drawing back a longbow.

"A hunter, huh? Up close, I could still fight like an umbra, but farther away . . ."

"It would also allow you to fight without consuming mana, leaving your umbra abilities, like teleporting, open for a prolonged fight," Althowin said. "Mark it down, Basolia."

"So, it's decided?" Cixilo asked quietly.

"It is. As long as you're part of my hero company, I will ensure you're as strong as possible. Sylmare leaving is not a surprise. I had concerns about her from the start. The rest of you, people have vouched for. Chorsay has a lot to say about you all, and he has impressed me more than any hero in a long, long time." Althowin paused and looked at the door. There hadn't been any sign of Potilia or Chorsay since they left.

Owin assumed they were somewhere talking, probably over a drink. He would like to go see them, but it had to wait.

Althowin passed right over Sanem and Raif, and stopped her gaze on Siora. "I've heard a lot of very impressive things about your talents as a soldier. After you get your second shard, what can you do? Do you need more utility? Do you need more mobility? Range? Magic?"

Owin turned around, also staring at her. She obviously noticed and looked back.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Owin scooted back, forcing Raif to scoot aside. Shade reached out like he needed to catch Owin.

"Can I ask you a question?" He tried to keep his voice a whisper, to avoid the whole room listening, but there weren't many people and it seemed like a majority of the room had abilities that helped them listen anyway.

Siora just stared, waiting.

"Why do you want to stay here? Why not go back to Void Nexus?"

Siora looked at her feet. "I . . ."

"Say it," Katalin said, almost like an order.

"I don't want to be that person anymore." She looked directly at Owin with golden eyes that matched her sword. "I don't want to be a killer."

"What if you have to?" Althowin asked.

"That's different," Siora said without looking away from Owin. "After seeing Artivan in that cave . . ." Her voice dropped to the faintest hint of a whisper. "After you stopped me in the Ocean, I saw the fear I caused you. Or maybe I didn't. I don't know. I thought I was going to die, and I was terrified of you. Vondaire said you could have acted as cruel as I did, and . . . and that made me feel like a horrible person. To think I had caused you to be so scared. You did the same thing to me and it almost broke me. I can't be that person anymore. I don't want to be."

"Okay," Owin said. "You're too slow."

Katalin snorted. "Who taught you how to talk to people?"

"You and Ernie."

"Speed?" Siora said to herself. She turned back to Althowin. "He's right. Speed. I couldn't keep up with him at all."

"Assassin," Zezog said.

Althowin tapped her metal finger against her chin. "Dexterity-focused class with some movement abilities. It could be beneficial. Soldiers and assassins share the weapon proficiency passive, so looking for an assassin of a specific mob type would give some resistances and racial abilities. Do you want to look human?"

"I . . . uh—"

Althowin continued like she hadn't asked a question. "There's really no reason to. Going one of the more extreme mobs probably wouldn't give you a lot. Scaltari, lehboa, claverstan, cetanthro, and all those can be good, but they have visual drawbacks if you're worried about that kind of thing. But don't be. Think on it. I don't have an answer for you at the moment. Basolia will do some research. Do some of your own."

Basolia turned into a weird shadow version of Owin.

"That leaves you," Althowin said, pointing right at him.

"Shade makes up for my weaknesses and I don't want to fuse with something that makes me bigger."

"I'm every class, so we're already the perfect combination," Shade said.

"Can you just fuse together?" Althowin asked.

Owin and Shade shook their heads in unison.

"Even if we can, I don't want to," Owin said.

"We need a better idea." Shade pointed over his shoulder at Owin. "His attributes can always keep rising, so he doesn't have weakness with anything like that."

"He's talented with every weapon I've seen," Zezog said. "Shade, on the other hand—"

"Hey!" Shade shouted. "Now's not the time to make me sound like a weakling!'

"An additional class would be useless anyway since he's unable to level up," Althowin said. "No class-based fusions will be beneficial. That makes the focus on the mob type. Obviously, an Omen would be ideal, but there are only six left, well five, and they are nearly impossible to track down."

"Five?" Sofia asked.

"Vondaire is going to fuse with the Phoenix."

The entire room was silent.

"Did I not mention that? Our deal was a way to find and fuse with the Phoenix provided he helped get the hero companies away from Owin. It worked out for us since he helped kill one of the Three Heads." Althowin smiled proudly like she had planned it all.

"I already fought Bashe. I don't think I want to fight another Omen."

Shade shook his head fast enough that his skull broke off and rolled across the floor. "Bashe was not a good time," his head said at Althowin's feet.

She pushed it aside. "You're already ugly, so we could find an equally ugly mob to fuse you with."

Owin frowned.

"Tell him he's sexy," Shade said.

"I'm about to kill you," Althowin said. "My idea is a horror. Now, the type of horror would change your appearance in unpredictable ways, especially since you're already a mob. We don't know how fusion might work anyway. A horror would give you horrific damage without any true weaknesses. You'd gain resistance to abyssal and luminous damage, and from what I've heard, Elysium is out to kill you, so that resistance could be lifesaving."

"Cathkabel don't like it when you eat them. Apparently," Shade said.

Althowin lifted her foot to kick the skull, but Katalin grabbed Shade and placed his skull back.

"I've seen three horrors," Owin said. "I don't want to fuse with Baby Head."

"Ew," Katalin said.

Althowin narrowed her eyes. "There's one I'm thinking of . . . I don't remember what it's called or where it is. Basolia?"

"I am unsure, ma'am."

"Ask Potilia," Cixilo suggested. "She knows everything about the dungeons."

"No, she doesn't," Althowin said.

Katalin raised her hand, getting Althowin's attention. "She kind of does."

Ernie nodded his agreement.

"Fine. We will pause the conversation here so I can consult with the clumsy berserker, Siora can decide her fusion, and we can all get ready for the shit show about to start. Owin, I'll have those buffs done tomorrow. Miya, Ernie has your assignment. Sofia, join my assistants, if you will. Zezog, with me. Everyone else, I don't care at all what you do right now." With that, she went right out the door and disappeared with Basolia.

Zezog smiled at everyone and followed behind.

"Sorry about all that," Katalin said. "Do you think Chorsay is okay?"

"Veph's his granddaughter," Sofia said. "And she tried to kill Owin. Ain't none of us doing good, but he's probably hurting bad." She lit a cigar and leaned on the wall.

His granddaughter? Owin and Shade were already looking at each other. Owin knew they were close, but he didn't know they were actually family.

"Let's go find him," Shade said.

"We'll give you some space, but make sure Chorsay is ready for a night of cards and whiskey," Raif said. "It'll be good for him."

"Oh, I'm ready for both of those things," Shade said.

Owin was already on his feet, hurrying down the hall. Without Basolia guiding, the halls were more confusing. Most of it looked familiar, but depending on which part of the compound he was in, Owin sometimes had to stop to check each hallway before just rushing through.

Chorsay and Potilia were sitting at a table in the kitchen with coffee. Potilia smiled at Owin when he walked in, and Chorsay didn't turn around.

Owin approached and just placed his hand on Chorsay's side, making the old man look down.

"Hi, Owin."

"I didn't know Veph was family. I'm sorry."

Chorsay clenched his jaw. His eyes glistened with moisture. "I–" He took a deep breath. "I just need to talk to her. This rift is nothing new. I thought we had bridged it, but I was mistaken." He pulled a chair out without needing to stand and gestured. "Please, join us."

Shade sat in the chair opposite Owin and reached for Potilia's coffee. Her expression made him back off immediately.

"Can you tell me about her?" Owin asked.

"I would love to."

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