Time Elapsed: 05:26:34

Severance sat against the wall. It felt cool against his burning skin and provided shade from the heat of the sun. This place was nowhere as dry and hot as the desert of the Lost Lands, but he still felt cooked.

His hair was soaked from the dunk he'd taken in one of the water barrels. It washed away the worst of the sweat and dust, but the uncomfortable gritty feeling remained. His coat lay spread out on a bench beside him to dry. That left him only in damp trousers and boots, but he was too drained to care much about it.

Leaning against the cool wall was the best thing in the world right now.

"Tough day?"

Severance looked up to see Dhin standing before him. He hadn't sensed the young clansman's arrival. That didn't come as a surprise, really. In the state he was, a meteor could have screamed out of the sky and flattened the nearby forest and he'd still not have noticed.

He let his head fall gently back against the stone. "Something like that."

"Yeah? What happened? Did the bigger twigs bully you?"

"No." Severance didn't even have the energy to roll his eyes. "Batin dragged me to the Lost Lands and we had a nice discussion about pain. For an entire hour."

And all that wasn't even enough to get him a 'Quest Completed' notification from the System. Who knew what it would take to get to that point? Batin had made it clear that they'd be meeting for an hour every single day that Severance logged in until he was satisfied. If that wasn't enough to give him nightmares tonight, Severance didn't know what else would.

It was silent. That was a bit unusual coming from Dhin, who always had some kind of quip ready, so Severance looked up again. Dhin was staring at him incredulously.

"Oh. I guess you didn't hear." Now Severance felt kind of stupid.

"Hear what?" Dhin slid down the wall and sat beside him, almost close enough for their shoulders to touch. "I mean, it's great that you're back and all that, but what are you talking about? Why would Batin...?"

Considering this was technically Dhin's fault to start with, Severance was more than happy to tell him. Maybe tomorrow, when Batin came for Lesson Two, Dhin could join them. It was only fair.

"Outsiders can't feel pain," Severance explained. "That's how they can fight through ridiculous amounts of crazy stuff without even flinching. They also heal fast on their own, even without a healer, and of course, they can't die. But you probably know that."

Dhin narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

"Anyway, I'm not really sure how it works, but that last batch of Gifts kind of changed that for me." Severance picked up a tiny pebble and tossed it. It bounced off the ground once before it settled. "Maun and Batin took me to Ascendance to see how things went, and well..." he shrugged. "I almost got Vast killed because I passed out."

"You passed out? What do you mean?"

Severance found another pebble. He tossed it, too. "I took one of the Golem's lightning blasts. It hurt. A lot."

"Oh," Dhin said, but it was more of a forceful exhale than a word. He winced. "Oh. That's rough."

A third pebble flew into the air. "Good news is that I'll be prepared now if I ever break all of my fingers or get stabbed." Severance smiled, but it came out twisted and devoid of all humor. "Batin is very..."

"Terrifying?" Dhin suggested.

"Yeah." And thorough. That man never took half measures in anything he did. Severance had figured that out pretty quick.

Dhin was quiet after that.

So was Severance. There wasn't much to say. It was Dhin's idea to get the extra Gifts, but Severance had chosen to go through with it. There was no room for regrets.

"I'm sorry," Dhin finally said. "I knew it would change things, but I didn't think it would go this far. If I had known-"

"You would have told me anyway." Severance turned his head, still resting against the cool stone, and met Dhin's troubled gaze. It was nice, he decided, to have someone care enough to feel bad for him, but it wasn't necessary. Apologies were pointless. What was done was done.

"Maybe," Dhin admitted. "But I wouldn't have pushed as much for you to do it."

Severance shrugged one shoulder. "Eh. Don't worry about it. I'll survive."

The way he saw it, the Veiled had been through worse. They couldn't heal within seconds like he could either, so whatever injuries they took in fights or dungeons, they had to heal the slow, old-fashioned way. Compared to that, he had it so incredibly easy.

Besides, this was why they accepted him into their clan, wasn't it? It was so he could take on the more dangerous tasks with his undying body and keep them out of the fire, so to speak. He just had to learn how to deal with feeling his wounds now.

He could do that. He was good at hiding the hurt. After all, he'd had a lifetime of practice.

Dhin's dark eyes were watching him. There was a weariness to them, a deep, tired sadness that made Severance think of Rasin. Dhin, like his father, had weathered many storms. He had a lot to carry, and Severance couldn't imagine what it must have been like to watch his family, friends, and even his entire neighborhood slaughtered before his very eyes.

So yes, Severance thought that he could take on this small burden. He could face this little storm so that Dhin or the others wouldn't need to. It was the least he could do.

"I'll be fine," he said into the silence.

Dhin had nothing to say to that.

They sat together in the shade until a shorter man with a black bandana tied over his head came over. Severance recognized him instantly. The one arm ending in a stump made it easy.

"Hello boys," Parvath greeted them.

"Hello yourself," Dhin threw back.

Severance stayed silent. He kept his eyes fixed on the stonework beneath them. The entire courtyard had stones fitted together in clever ways. No two stones were the same, with varying shapes and sizes, yet there wasn't much more than a finger's breadth between each stone. It wasn't as pretty or intricate as the tiny blue stones in Tomorrow's Edge, but it had a rugged, natural appeal to it.

"Kid," Parvath addressed Severance. When he got no response, he lightly kicked one Severance's boots to get his attention. "Olen says you should go home. You've been here long enough today."

"We were supposed to talk," Severance said.

Parvath lifted his eyebrows. "Do you feel like talking?"

"Not really."

"I didn't think so. You look a lot like Olen did after Bian was finished with him." Parvath smiled crookedly.

Dhin snorted at that. He shifted, drawing a knee up to his chest. "Yeah, now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance. Go home, Twiggy."

It took some effort, but Severance managed to feel a thread of irritation at that. He turned his head, and let it lean against the wall as he stared at Dhin. "Only if you come to Batin's lesson tomorrow."

Dhin scoffed. "No way."

"Then I'm not going." It wasn't that he felt particularly stubborn, but Severance just didn't feel like moving. Or doing anything. Every last bit of energy had been sapped from him and he was perfectly content with staying where he was for the next ten hours.

"What are you, three years old?"

Severance gave a nonverbal grunt. He wished Vast was here. At least the beast wouldn't insult him. Still, he had to admit they were right. He needed to sleep. Even if he stayed here, he wasn't going to be doing much of anything.

"Fine," he muttered. "I can see when I'm not wanted." Leaning over, he grabbed his coat from the bench. It was still damp, but not as bad as it had been. He slung it over a shoulder. "See you tomorrow?"

"Only if I have to," Dhin said, though he was smiling faintly.

"Whatever." Severance couldn't be bothered with a proper response. With both Parvath and Dhin watching, he dutifully logged out.

Darkness overtook him.

Maybe it was just his tired brain, but it seemed to linger for a while.

Then he heard the persistent sound of his alarm going off. He registered a soft surface beneath him, recognizing it as his bed, but when he opened his eyes, there was only darkness. It confused him for a moment, then he understood why.

Seth pulled the VR headset off his head and rolled over. The alarm on the bedstand continued to beep, sounding more obnoxious with every minute. 10:00 AM flashed at him.

He stared at it.

It had been just after 11pm when he'd first signed into Eliona. And it had been about five and a half hours later that he'd logged out, so why was it almost 12 hours later? Usually, he'd be awake when he logged off, and he'd almost immediately pass out into sleep. This time, however...

What had happened the time in between?

Seth rubbed at his eyes. Exhaustion still weighted upon him, like he'd been up all night without a shred of sleep. The alarm kept going, a sober reminder that he had to work in a couple of hours.

He groaned. All he wanted right now was to sleep, but considering it was his first day back on the job, that wasn't going to happen.

"Awesome," he muttered, and then dragged himself out of bed.