“Lover and Hater of Tower of Hate and Love” (65.9) (Oka)

I pouted as I watched from the sidelines as Riannon took on Shelv. She took first dibs on fighting him, and was holding her own way longer than I had.

I couldn't help but wonder as she fought. Was she stronger than me? Maybe her being in her past self form made her weaker or something. I hated to think of her attitude being in line with Tesata's made her any stronger. Thinking that solitude and cruelty were the ways to true strength. Anything that validated that place gave me a bleak feeling in my stomach.

I turned at the sound of a twig breaking behind me. Lillia approached through some bushes (did we all get a nature trail pathway back?) covered in what I thought was blood.

"Oh my god, are you alright?" I asked.

"Yes, none of this is my blood," Lillia said, using the adaptive gear's cleaning function again. "Just void monster ooze. After Shelv's attack, I was sent to a realm with at least fifty monsters."

"Well, you got some aggressions worked out, at least," I said.

"Indeed," Lillia said. "What happened to you?"

"I got zapped to Tesata, or a tiny bit of it," I said. I pointed to Riannon. "And ran into her."

"Oh, I thought that was Michi," Lillia squinted at our new guest.

"She's an old…acquaintance from Tesata," I said. "Turns out she's a senior at Wildfire Hearts, and is wrapping up here."

"I see," Lillia said. "How do you feel about all that?"

"I am not sure," I said. "She was not a friend back then, but she's maybe chilled out."

As I said that, Riannon roared as she slashed one of Shelv's bookshelf shoulderpads off of him.

"…maybe." I said.

Iris and Maia found their way back next. Iris was sobbing, her nose runny and tears streaking down her cheeks.

"They…" Iris wailed. "They had the thing, and haddughgh, and they made mehhguguhhh…"

"Wh…what?" I asked.

"Really mean void monster that looked like a crosswalk flag dude," Maia said. "Said some very uncool things to Iris and me."

"Then…M-Maia…" Iris sobbed harder.

"I took care of him," Maia grinned as Iris hugged her, burying her face in Maia's side.

Shortly after, Amara and Michi returned as well.

"I did battle with a creature that appeared to be a hybrid of a gazelle and a pear," Amara said. "Once I toppled it, it was child's play."

"I had to fight a giant blank canvas," Michi said. "It was way more boring than you'd think."

We all watched as Riannon battled Shelv. I explained again who she was to Iris, Maia, Amara, and Michi.

"I have seen enough," Shelv said, stopping mid-attack.

"What do you mean?" Riannon asked.

"Though one can never read enough, I have seen enough, and I have evaluated your combat skills thusly," Shelv said. "And I am leaving."

"What?" I said, rising to my feet. "No fair, I didn't even get a second chance! What was all that crap about healing and stuff?"

"You are not ready," Shelv said.

"But…" I said.

"Who even cares, let's just go home," Maia said.

I looked to Riannon as Shelv walked away, none of us trying to stop him. She could only shrug.

"Perhaps if we meet again, then you will be more well read," Shelv said before vanishing. Moments later, a staircase dropped in front of us, like one that would go up to an attic. With nowhere else to go, we ascended, and returned to the hallway that Iris had barreled through.

"I feel like I didn't accomplish anything," I said. "Oh, right!" I tried to call Caya again on my wristband. "Hello? You there?"

"Oh, thank god," Caya's voice came through immediately. "Is everyone alright?"

"I think so," I said. "This has been a weird dungeon, Caya. What was up with that Shelv guy?"

"Shelv guy?" Caya asked. "What do you mean?"

"He said he was like a servant of Reed, whoever that is, and made us fight him," I said. "What does Servant of Reed mean?"

"That's…hm," Caya said. "That...I don't know, actually. You'll see a lot of strange things in the void."

"I could've told you that," Iris said.

"I've been trying to reach you for a while, I lost your signal just as you got into that hallway." Caya said.

We all glared at Iris. "What are you looking at me for?"

"Did we just accidentally go into like some super dangerous situation?" I asked.

"Doubt it, that guy offered free healing," Riannon said.

"Oh, we picked up a Wildfire Hearts student too," I said.

Ahead of us was the library door. Just as we mulled opening it, a man rushed out, cradling a poster in his arms.

"Penteldtam? What were you doing in there?" I asked.

Penteldtam nearly jolted into the ceiling. "Nothing! Nothing at all…"

"Well that's not a suspicious thing to say," Iris said.

"Was that...like, a memory sprite of Penteldtam?" I asked.

"No, I think that's the real thing," Caya said. "I'll…keep an eye on him and make sure he gets back safely."

"Well, should we keep going?" I asked, not really wanting to see what was behind that door now. "Or call it a day?"

"Call it a day," the others said in near perfect unison.

Back home, Riannon reunited with her classmates from Wildfire Hearts, and got chewed out a bit by her teacher for straying from the group. I thought about holding my tongue, but I couldn't.

"It wasn't her fault," I told the teacher. "There was this weird void monster that was flinging us all around to strange places, at least we ended up near each other."

Riannon's eyebrows were raised.

"Hm," the teacher said. "I guess that's understandable."

After Caya made us all explain in detail everything that happened two times over, it was finally time to wrap it up. I wasn't sure if it was too late to go to Zeta's party, but I hoped I could at least make an appearance, or greet her as soon as she was back at school. Just as I texted her, Riannon held her phone out.

"What?" I asked.

"Phone number," Riannon said.

I felt stupid for not noticing she had written her own number in a big font on it. I added it to my contacts.

"Alright, send me something," Riannon said.

"You really want my number?" I asked.

"Uh huh, gotta make sure you don't do anything too rampage-y," Riannon said. "And I still wanna meet your girlfriend."

"Sure, sure," I said. Her phone binged as soon as I sent a message. "There you go."

"Thanks," Riannon said.

I wasn't sure if I should say it was nice to see her again, or if I was looking forward to chatting with her over text.

"You know, seeing you again has me thinking," Riannon said.

"About what?" I asked.

"It's kind of a miracle you turned out alright," Riannon said.

There was one thing I was sure of about Riannon. We were both survivors of Tesata, so that had to count for something.

"Yeah, you too," I said.