Elendria’s POV, six days later

“Good morning hun.” I said, snuggling in as I felt Sean stir.

“Mornin’.” He grumbled, and I sighed. It was going to be another one of those days. Rolling over, I searched his face for any hint of what was bothering him, getting a half-hearted smile in return.

“What’s the plan for today?” I asked, hoping that it would be different from the last week.

“Kill wolves in the dungeon.” He said, and I was doomed to disappointment. Maybe it was the early morning, or maybe it was yet another day of the same kind of moping mediocrity, but he must have read something in my face. “Oh? Is that not good enough for you?”

“It’s not that.” I started. “It’s. Ugh. You don’t need to be killing wolves! I thought you were here to evolve! You won’t if you don’t push yourself!”

“I’m pushing myself just fine.” He growled, sliding out of bed. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Then will you tell me what’s been bothering you?” I pleaded.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Bullshit.” I spat. “I miss him too. But do you think Carrigan would want-“

“Don’t finish that thought!” He snarled, pausing as he was putting on his armor. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” He said after taking a second to calm down. “Carrigan’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” He got dressed in silence, and took off towards the dungeon. I knew I had to do something when I noticed Annette staring out the door after him.

“He didn’t eat breakfast, did he?”

“Nope. Barely gave me a grunt as a greeting.” She said. “What are you going to do?”

“Call in the best help I can think of.” I said. “Maybe the guildmaster can set him straight.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Sean’s POV

I couldn’t help but go over my conversation with Elendria in my head as I waited to enter the dungeon. I shouldn’t have taken my frustrations out on her, but since when have people ever chosen the right thing over the easy one? She didn’t understand, and I was afraid to really inspect what was bothering me. This past week of diving into the dungeon was my way of punishing myself, truth be told. I wasn’t feeling much like a hero.

Suddenly it was my turn to enter, and I headed straight to the area with the wolves. To my surprise this time, there was a powerful alpha wolf waiting a good distance from the safe zone. As soon as I appeared, it started to snarl.

“Back off pup. You don’t have near the numbers to challenge me right now.” I growled right back, and to my surprise it threw its head back and howled. A howl that was answered by one, three, seven, ten and more howls. A chorus of howls, all of them coming closer. “Well now, this maybe this will be worth it. Don’t worry, I’ll wait for all your friends to arrive first.” I said with an evil grin on my face as I started preparations for the battle. Back when I was young, I would de-stress sometimes by going through small armies worth of enemies using melee weapons. My favorite being from a game where you are a mechanic with a robot helper. What starts out as an unassuming whip can be upgraded into the leviathan flail, that lets you unleash shockwaves of power when you smash the ground with the spiked ball. For today’s melee challenge, we have over a hundred wolves versus a mana replication of the leviathan flail. Since it didn’t have the power to send shockwaves through the earth, I hollowed out the spikes and filled the middle with plasma. Waves of searing heat are close enough. The alpha wolf’s snarl matched mine as we dashed forward in a massive clash.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few hours later I limped out of the dungeon. One of the bastards had managed to sneak in and slam into me hard enough that I stumbled and got a minor ankle sprain. I was rather ashamed to admit I snapped at that point, and went into execution mode. Blobs of darkness blinded the wolves, and I used an antigravity well to float over the few remaining and blast each though the head with a bullet. Bits of my armor was in tatters, but that was fine. Any day now the guild should be upgrading my equipment with the stuff made from the turtle. I hobbled over to the only open guild representative, and started putting my spoils on the counter.

“Good afternoon. Could I see your adventurer’s plate please?”

“That’s different.” I muttered, handing the plate over with a shrug.

“The guildmaster has a request for you to meet with him after you exit the dungeon today.” The helper said. “He also said you are wasting your talent and until you push into the next portion of the dungeon you will only receive half the contribution points. You have 114 low quality pelts, 78 chipped fangs, and 51 broken claws. I can give you a day’s worth of contribution for this.”

“Seriously?” I grumbled, looking things over. Truth be told, the appraiser was correct. All of the pelts had singed spots and holes, while most of the fangs and claws couldn’t be used even for arrows. Most likely they would be ground down and used for alchemy in bone meal. “Not your fault, and you are right. This is a shit haul.” I held up a hand before he could reply. “Sorry for taking my mood out on you.”

“It’s alright. Most who wish to argue don’t give in before I can even point things out sir.” The appraiser chuckled. “Have a nice day.”

“You too.” I sighed before turning and heading out. I guess I needed to go see Brian. I easily cut my way through the crowd, and headed into the guild headquarters. There were only a few adventurers hanging around, and a small line. Hides-in-Reeds simply waved me along, obviously knowing what everything was about. I nodded at her, and headed upstairs and back to the guildmaster’s office.

“Come on in Sean.” He called out before I could knock, and I shrugged as I opened the door.

“Afternoon Brian. You wanted to see me?”

“Yes. Go ahead and take a seat. Drink?” He asked, already pouring me a drink from a bottle. The slightly glowing blue liquid gave off a slight bit of fog, as if it were icy cold despite the heat of the day. “Everfrost. Delightful drink, brewed from the venom of the ice wyrm. As you can see, it is always cold. But even better, it has the rare property of lowering poison resistance. A thing many adventurers lament, as it makes it harder to get drunk.”

“Intersting.” I said, looking at the glass. “And to those with no poison resistance?”

“Nothing.” He smiled. “Once the resistance gets down to around 5% or so, the effect stops. Bottoms up!” He said, slamming the drink down. I copied him, and was pleasantly surprised at the taste. The first thing to hit was similar to a peppermint blast, though it wasn’t overpowering. I could feel it opening up my sinuses as well as flowing down to my stomach, where it changed from a cooling sensation to a gentle warming.

“Oooh, that’s good.” I said, we both sat back for a second, enjoying the sensation of the liquor. Before I knew it, there was another glass in front of me.

“King’s liquor.” Brian nodded. “Just sip it, though if we had a bit of ice it would be perfect.” He added, wiggling his eyebrows. I chuckled, and conjured two ice cubes for each of us. A taste of this reminded me of an aged whiskey, and I nodded in appreciation.

“Very nice. Aged in charred barrels?”

“Indeed. Around 50 years I do believe. But I’m sure you know that I have a different reason for calling you here today.”

“I assumed as much, but wasn’t going to turn down free alcohol.”

“Well, I got a visit from Elendria this morning. As you probably know, I have been following your progress, or lack thereof, ever since the battle. I’m not the only one that is concerned.”

“I’m just working out some frustrations.” I deflected.

“Or are you avoiding something?” He asked, his eyes faintly glowing purple. “Ah. Aaaaaah.” He started nodding his head.

“Don’t.” I started.

“Carrigan.”

“Fuck.” I muttered. Cheating bastard, looking at the future.

“Do you think he would approve of how you’ve been acting?” He asked, taking another sip of his drink. I matched him while I thought through my answer.

“I don’t know.” I muttered.

“Come on, of course you do.” He prodded.

“No, I don’t.” I said.

“Sean.” He drew out my name in warning, and I felt something odd settling around me as his eyes glowed deep purple. I shuddered, then downed my drink for some courage. Even still, I sat there for a few seconds bearing the uncomfortable silence.

“I want to say of course he doesn’t. But I can’t, and that’s the problem.” I said, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. I wiped away the start of a tear before continuing. “I didn’t know him. I listened to your eulogy, and learned so much about the man I had been traveling through the world with. We’ve spent months together, and I didn’t know half of what he had done. I feel like a shitty friend, like I’ve just been using him for so long. Can I get a refill?” I asked, only to see that it was already full. I took a sip of it this time, already feeling a bit of it going to my head. “And even now, I don’t know why I’m opening up so quickly.”

“You’ve been carrying guilt for a while, and needing someone to listen.” Brian shrugged. “I’m assuming you are avoiding Elendria because of all the conflicting emotions, and you are afraid you are using those demon brothers the same way.”

“Damn seers.” I muttered. “Got it in one.” I said, saluting him with the glass and taking another drink.

“It’s not just that.” Brian said. “Though seeing a bit of the future does make it easier. No, I’m far more experienced with guilt than you can possibly imagine.” He steeled himself, and downed his own glass before refilling it to match me. “Before we get into that, let me tell you some things about Carrigan that you missed. First, he loved blending in. He didn’t want to be famous, hailed wherever he went. That’s why his books of cantrips never had an author on them. And the fact that you accepted him as he was without prying into his past was perfect for him. You accepted him, and that’s all he cared about. Same as the demon brothers. They both have some variant of a rogue class. Do you ever wonder just what you would have to go through to get one of those? There’s a reason most don’t go over their past too much.”

I sat and stared at him for a second, completely blindsided. “Seriously?” I asked.

“Of course.” He nodded. “Most people feel that way. Even as close as you and Elendria are, you still haven’t shared much of your own past with her, and haven’t asked about all the years she spent as a slave. People need to hide things, Sean. So what if you didn’t know everything about Carrigan? He still considered you a friend.”

“Thanks.” I said after a minute of silent reflection.

“Don’t thank me.” He waved me off. “I need to ask your forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness? For what?” I asked.

“For his death.” He said. “Aaaand, there we go.” He said, pointing at me as things finally started clicking in my head. “Exactly. Sure, the future is blurry, but one thing that is abundantly clear is when someone has no future. Before I start making excuses, let me tell you a bit about how a seer’s sight works. The first thing we see is our death. In excruciating detail. And every time we make a move to prevent it, we are immediately treated to a vision of our new death. Even if it is something I don’t put in motion, I get it. Before you entered the city, I was going to die in the wave. Of course, I still thought I had seven years, but that’s beside the point. As soon as you entered the city, I’ve had my death changed several times. A dungeon accident. Monster attack. Several branches of this very conversation. Old age. Necrotic wound. Each vision can last for hours, but only a second of actual time passes.”

“Holy shit.”

“Indeed. Many go insane and end it themselves. Most of the rest seclude themselves, hoping to control as many variables as possible and limit the number of changes. I choose to live. And I have so many lives that I have known I am sending to their end, but the consequences for failing to do so are horrible. If Carrigan hadn’t been there to sacrifice himself, the wall would have fallen. The enemy would have infiltrated and poisoned our wells, and the entire city would fall before we could do anything. The dungeon would be destroyed, and the enemy would be able to renew their assault on our world faster than anticipated. In three years, Vitae would be no more.”

He sighed, swirled his drink, and downed it. I copied him, and we both got refilled glasses. “And now I see one of those futures starting down a terrible path. Consumed by grief that turns to self-doubt, you go for an inferior evolution. But you lack the perseverance to see it through, and fail. As a high human, you lack the power needed to face the foes you are destined to, and our world falls in five years instead of three.” As he talked, I stared into my drink. I would occasionally tap the side of the glass, watching the ripples move across the liquid.

“And what of those other futures?” I asked.

“Fading, the longer you stay on this path.” He shrugged.

I took another sip, and closed my eyes. Could I do it? Carrigan’s loss hurt, but some of my doubts about myself were clearing up. Looking back, he did tend to avoid conversations about himself. Especially his past. The brothers were the same. So what if Carrigan didn’t open up about the past? He was there when I needed him, wasn’t he? And I know as much as I could, I was there for him. The brothers? While they mostly stuck to themselves, I knew I could count on them to use their skills to the best of their ability should it be needed. I took another sip, and could feel something shifting.

“Thanks Brian.” I said with a nod.

“You’re welcome.” He said with a smile. “Glad you are coming out of that depressing funk. Now, we still have a few hours of that venom left. It would be a waste not to use it to the fullest, no?”

“Too true my friend. Too true.” I chuckled.

The next few hours were a blur in my mind. I know at some point we used Brian’s powers to look into my past, so that we could share drinking songs. Somehow we went from the Parting Glass in honor of the fallen, to the Drinking Bone and Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On. Then we had to one up each other in stories, but I had to concede when Brian had one about fleeing a town on a donkey while wearing a purple hat. He still sent some money back, as there could be anywhere from one to five of his bastards in that town, but even his power wouldn’t tell him the truth. Eventually Elendria came to get me, and Brian promised that my equipment would be in tomorrow, so long as I took a day off from the dungeon.