Asher let out a breath of relief as the world twisted around him and he suddenly found himself standing in the middle of the Lavash Forest. Having used the last dregs of his energy to get here, he almost fell to his knees, stumbling and barely managing to catch himself on Samantha's outstretched arm.

Recall - Lvl 5

"Asher?!" she gasped, looking him over and carefully helping him sit on a nearby fallen tree. He hadn't expected the hunter to actually be up at what was nearly the crack of dawn, but he was definitely thankful for the fact that she was. "What happened?!"

"A whole hell of a lot," he chuckled, just taking a minute to calm his racing heart as he waited for his body to catch up with the fact that he'd managed to get away. A quick glance around showed Brian nowhere to be found, but checking on Eternal Mark informed him that the boy was only a few hundred feet away. "What's Brian doing?"

"I pretended like we had an emergency and woke him up in the middle of the night. I made us shift locations and then told him he needed to set up his own camp and fend for himself for the night," Samantha explained, her eyes running over him and seeming to note every single spot where he'd been injured. Even if Eternal Regeneration healed him up, the tears and blood stains in his clothing were dead giveaways. "He thinks he's all on his own, but I've been monitoring him all night to make sure nothing approached him he couldn't handle."

Only now did Asher realize the hunter had a familiar sunken look in her eyes that spoke of working through the night and a lack of sleep. It wasn't one he'd seen on her before, but it was one he was more than familiar with.

He'd seen that look and worse staring back at himself in the mirror countless times back on Earth.

"I can take over for a bit if you want to grab a quick nap," he heard himself offering before even thinking about his own situation. He was absolutely spent and needed far more than a nap himself, but somehow, taking one look at an exhausted Samantha had caused his mouth to move without him even thinking about it.

Thankfully, Samantha wasn't about to have any of that.

"Are you kidding me? Asher, you look like you just fought a second awakened beast!" she exclaimed, cupping his face in her hand as her frown deepened. "Are we in trouble?"

"No, I don't think so," he admitted, feeling an invisible weight slide off his body as Owl's words echoed through his head and he came to a sudden realization. "Eight isn't working with the Head anymore. Or at least, not when it comes to the matter of 'testing' me. Which means he's not working with the Finger capable of scrying anymore, either. He still knows about your cabin, but he shouldn't be able to find you guys out here in the forest."

"Testing you? What do you mean?"

"Oh, boy, you might as well take a seat," Asher grinned, doing his best not to look quite as tired as he felt. "Would you believe I'm so impressive that I've apparently been handed a rather roundabout job offer?"

Asher quickly explained everything that had happened in the last few hours to Samantha, starting with his failed attempt at tailing Leonard's corpse, fighting the senior assassin, his following conversation with Owl, and finally finishing up with his capture and subsequent escape from the truthseekers. It felt like every time he got to the next stage of his explanation Samantha's eyes only grew wider, and by the end, they practically looked like dinner plates as she stared at him with her mouth open.

"Careful, you might swallow a bug," he teased, chuckling at how she snapped her mouth shut.

"I… I don't even know where to begin," she admitted. "Well, that's not exactly true. I think I know that much." Leaning her bow against a nearby tree, Samantha stepped closer and leaned down, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him with enough force that his back popped and he let out a slightly pained grunt.

"Samantha… I give!" he gasped, tapping her back as she held him. Just as he was contemplating dipping into the astral to escape before he lost consciousness, she finally eased up to the point he could breathe once more.

"I try to put on a brave face, Asher, but hearing everything you keep going through…" she paused, her voice wavering for a moment before she seemed to get her emotions under control. "It's just a lot, alright? I know better than anyone how capable and hard to kill you are, but I hate seeing how much pain you must be going through."

"Actually, Complete Resilience does a fantastic job of dulling pain," he grinned, wincing as Samantha pulled back far enough to frown at him. "...sorry."

Stolen novel; please report.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," she sighed, squeezing him again as she took a seat beside him on the fallen tree. "It's just hard to believe my life turned into something as insane as this practically overnight. I mean, barely a month ago I was just a hunter in the forest desperately trying to keep our house in our possession. And now, my life involves dealing with things like truthseekers and an Assassin's Guild, even if only through you," she said, shaking her head. "It's crazy!"

"You're not… having second thoughts about us, or anything… right?" Asher asked, growing slightly concerned at Samantha's words. He'd hoped beyond hope that he would be able to keep Samantha and Brian away from everything he was doing over in the city, but that ship had long since sailed once Eight had put him on his hit list. He supposed it only made sense that Samantha would sit down and reconsider everything after he'd nearly gotten the two of them killed and forced them to seek refuge within the forest. Honestly, the fact-

Samantha flicked him none too gently in the forehead, startling him out of his negative spiral and causing him to look at her. While the hunter looked mildly exasperated, her eyes were soft, and she had a small smile on her face.

"Not in the slightest," she said, leaning forward and kissing him on the forehead where she'd flicked him. "Sorry, that's not where I was trying to go with that. All I meant is that this is all a big adjustment to make. You coming into our lives was one of the best things that could have happened."

"Even if I'm the reason why you guys had to flee from your own cabin for a while?"

"Alright, now you're just fishing for compliments, mister," Samantha giggled, scooting closer to him on the log and wrapping an arm around his waist. "Let's go down the list, shall we? Saving our lives from the wizard… Dealing with Trellis… Giving me an element of all things and shards for my skills…" she paused, raising an eyebrow at him. "Do I really have to remind you of all the good things that have happened because of you? Yes, I know you're feeling guilty because we got roped into this whole ordeal with the Assassin's Guild and things could have ended up going very differently. But they didn't. We're still alive and healthy and that's all I can ask for. You have to take the good with the bad, Asher, that's just life."

"Your outlook on life never ceases to amaze me," he admitted, earning another playful grin from Samantha.

"You try raising your baby brother all on your own while struggling not to lose the family home. It was either let myself fall into the pit of crushing despair, or learn to look at all the positive things going on. I'll admit, I came close more than a few times to that pit…" she paused, seeming to lose herself in her memories for a moment before shaking herself out of it. "...but that's in the past. All we can do is keep moving forward."

"You're incredible," he admitted, finally returning her hug and letting the last bit of tension bleed out of him from his encounter with Owl and the truthseekers.

"So I've been told," she giggled, before giving him a serious look. "I guess the most important thing to think about at this point is what's your plan now? With the truthseekers involving themselves and the Head's mysterious challenge, does this change anything?"

"Honestly, as weird as it is to say, I think the Head involving themselves is a massive plus in my favor," Asher admitted. "Owl is easily one of the deadliest people I've ever met, but he won't be coming after my head now. And like I said, if Eight is cut off from working with the other Fingers, that means we don't have to worry about any more scrying attempts. At least not ones powerful enough to bypass my Permanence. No, the bigger issue is the truthseekers…"

Asher paused, thinking back to his encounter with Bordan and Clare. Even if he didn't have his Judgement skill, it was obvious at a glance that Bordan was a stickler for the rules and tried to do everything by the book. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, however, as it had almost resulted in him losing his life right there in the middle of the street. Clare was much more of a wildcard, but her Chain element was seriously bad news. All it took was one lapsed moment and he'd be locked out of using his active skills again. Complete Resilience's second tier effect worked on the weaker cell he'd been tossed into, but there was no telling if it would work if those chains got ahold of him again. He'd also told Bordan everything, in no small part due to the man's Ring of Truth, which meant Bordan was well aware of his current battle with Eight. But what exactly the truthseekers would do moving forward was anyone's guess.

"Bordan seemed more than a little interested in using me to get to the Head," he finally admitted, remembering the look of surprise and almost hunger in the man's eyes when he'd told him he might be able to lead him to the mysterious figure hidden somewhere within the kingdom's capital who had danced circles around the High Prince and truthseekers for decades. "...but I don't know if that means they'll let me live if I make a mistake and end up captured by them again. I think I'll be able to use my newly evolved skill to escape Clare's chains if worst comes to worst, but I can't know for sure until I try, and I'd rather avoid that test if I can help it."

"Then it sounds like your goals haven't really changed," Samantha pointed out. "You still want to kill Eight and take down the Guild in Whikoga, now you just have to avoid the truthseekers while doing so."

"I want to take down the Guild everywhere," Asher grinned, earning an eye roll from the hunter.

"Baby steps," she said, finally getting up and grabbing her bow once more. "Maybe save the plan to eradicate the deadliest and most dug-in guild in the entire kingdom for after you've managed to kill one of their eleven most dangerous members."

"That sounds fair enough," he laughed, yawning as the last of the adrenaline finally left his system and his exhaustion hit him all at once. "Maybe I can find a way to use the truthseekers to my advantage… I bet if I lead them to one of the Guild's cells, they could take care of some of the lower members I don't have any interest in fighting."

"Save the planning for later, you need some rest," Samantha ordered, pointing over to where Brian was camping. "Brian should be getting up any moment, which means you can snag his bedroll and catch a few hours of sleep while we're training."

"Thanks, Samantha, that sounds wonderful," he admitted, yawning again as he got to his feet and smiled at her. "You would not believe how early Rosh wakes up every morning."

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