“You want him to convince me instead?” Kalter said.

“I don’t want anyone to convince you; I want you to come to a decision about it on your own,” August said, remembering the words he’d said back to her the first time it had been brought up. “If I was trying to convince you, I’d go about this in a completely different way.”

“Which means you’ve spent some time thinking about it,” Kalter said, eyeing him.

August couldn’t help the flash of annoyance that cut through him.

“If thinking about something makes me guilty, then you should probably turn yourself in, Kalter,” August said, vaguely annoyed. “I doubt your conscience is as clean as mine.”

“Prove it then,” Kalter said, frowning now. “How would you have convinced me?”

A clear challenge, or simply her desire to know what to look out for; either way, there was absolutely no subtlety involved—if Haiko could be called diplomatic, Kalter was more like a full frontal assault.

“I would have started with a list of all the unique advantages you would receive from joining; like access to the growing database of increasingly complex blueprints, each one telling you how to build things from twine to tools, to buildings, to weapons, to furnaces and who knows what else,” August said, keeping his voice level. “A system of blueprints I’m capable of sharing with anyone in the faction with a touch, which as of this morning now includes every single Rune I personally identify—something you’re normally forbidden from learning, I might add.”

Kalter said nothing—but that was okay because he was only getting started.

“Then there’s the once-in-a-lifetime chance for you to spontaneously develop the ability to manipulate mana in a way your species apparently isn’t even capable of; one of the big differences between you and Gaians, if I’m not mistaken,” August said, “Strengthening your body, enhancing your attacks, making shields out of mana, augmenting your vision with the ability to see through objects, and locate plants, animals, threats, allies—and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what is probably possible.”

The sound of Ladybug’s chain striking a tree rang out, and the monster blurred into view, touching against the trunk before landing on the branch directly above them.

“I’d shine a light on how trustworthy I am, highlighting how I could have kept all of the information I’ve learned to myself; the existence of the blueprints, the floating words, the name of the island, the details about the monsters, the roles, the mechanics of the tame spell—but instead, I went out of my way to share it with you, despite the constant paranoia you’ve aimed back at me,” August said, “I’d make it known just how many opportunities I’ve had to act against you, or the others if that had been my goal. Poisoning the first Sadapple I gave you, or all the ones since, letting you go into the forest without proper warning, advising any of the monsters I’ve tamed to use lethal force against you—or even attacking you while you’re asleep.”

Kalter shifted her body weight slightly as he spoke, her feet twisting against the ground in a way that made her centre of balance lower and more stable than before—threatening as it was, it only served to illustrate his point.

“At that point, I would expect you to realise just how ludicrous the idea that I would willingly spend an entire week sleeping on the ground, building huts out of sticks, and playing with fucking dirt,” August said, kicking at the ground. “In order to pull some objectiveless, bizarre, long-con on a bunch of Voithos—who hold no resources, standing, or apparent connections with the race of beings who dominate this world—that are only alive because I stumbled onto a way to bring them back to life in the first place.”

Kalter’s eyes were like slits now, her posture tense. August blew a slow breath out of his nose in an attempt to rid himself of the genuine heat simmering in his chest.

“A combination of stacking up all the benefits you would gain by trusting me and a systematic attack on your unfair internal characterisation of me that’s based entirely on the way I look; that would be how I’d go about convincing you, Kalter,” August said, breaking eye contact for the first time. “Something like that might have worked if I chipped away at you over the course of several weeks, but I don’t have the patience, the desire or a reason to do that.”

The dirt caked between his fingers and under his fingernails was suddenly unbearable, a disgusting mess that he could no longer ignore—he brushed it off as best he could, dragging his fingertips against his palm in a failed attempt to dislodge it.

“I don’t need anyone to join this stupid system, so I’m not going to bother trying to convince you,” August said, watching her. “There, I answered your question; now it’s your turn to answer one of mine—exactly how many times have you thought about killing me?”

Kalter shifted again, but the threat in her posture was gone now, washed away by something else.

“I’m not going to hurt you, August,” Kalter said, glancing away. “I made that decision already.”

August watched her for a long moment, wondering if she would add anything new to her response.

“I believe you,” August admitted, “But just so we’re clear, only one of us opened up and answered the question that was actually asked.”

Kalter said nothing as he turned, stepping off their previous trail to cut a new parallel line back to the group. Her render vanished after a few feet, but the belated sound of her footsteps told him that she’d chosen to follow behind him. A check of his mana showed him that it was trickling back in, currently hovering just above the reserved threshold, but he was far from being able to use it for anything substantial.

His mind turned toward the plants sitting inside his inventory and how he could organise them into some kind of garden. August knew next to nothing about the process other than perhaps to replicate the conditions they’d already been growing in—a few inches of dirt in one of the areas inside the forest that were getting some direct sunlight.

Some of the plants had been almost singular, a bulb with a shoot of green tubing rising out of it and sticking up above the earth, while others had half a dozen of them tangled up by their roots. It made him wonder if he was supposed to keep them clumped up or if he should try and separate them out into individual bulbs.

There was nothing of note on the return trip, even after he’d adjusted his path to cover new ground, just the same tangle of thick tree roots stretching out beneath them. The sound of axes thumping into wood reached his ears as they approached the clearing again.

“I was just about to come to look for you,” Boko said, axe hanging from his bottom left hand. “No trouble?”

August’s internal state told him that the argument probably constituted some kind of trouble, but it probably wasn’t the kind that Boko had been referring to.

“Nothing,” August said, nodding.

Haiko eyed them both from across the clearing, the smile she was wearing fading. It left him wondering exactly what it was that she had noticed—something in Kalter’s expression, perhaps. Whatever it had been, August wasn’t in a position to detect the difference.

“That was the case here, as well—entirely silent, with the exception of Morningstar,” Rittan said, dragging one of the thick branches over to the large pile in the centre of the clearing. “Did you discover anything noteworthy?”

“Garlic and Onion plants,” August offered, moving towards the pile. “They’re a lot smaller than what I’m used to, but that might just be because they were struggling to survive in the forest—not much sunlight in here.”

August started vanishing everything into his inventory, making a mental catalogue of what they’d collected—stacks of vines, far in excess of the amounts they’d taken last time, and enough of the large leaves to roof any number of buildings.