"Yoh, Kur's party! I heard you guys almost died!"

"Mynap!" Tuk shouted.

They filtered out of the beetle with the other apprentices, and followed Tuk towards the gathering of various Scimitar crew from the many different departments that kept the ship flying. Amongst them was Mynap and his squad of Storm Gliders, who were their designated escort.

As they left the ship, crew and apprentices greeted each other, the sound of easy laughter and good cheer drowned by the frenzy of activity going on around them.

Nar approached the handrail of the swaying gangway the beetle had offloaded them onto, and peered down.

"Damn…" Rel said and whistled.

"Yeah!"

Below and all around them, stretched hundreds of gangways just like the one they stood upon, with thousands of ships on the smaller size moored alongside them. The sound of their glimmering lift engines was almost fully drowned out by that of hundreds of moving cranes, trains, shouts, repairs, and an infinite other myriad of activities going on in that void of brown, rusty metal, chains, and moving parts and machinery.

"Where are we?" Rel asked, eyeing the hive of frenetic activity expanding all around them. "They still haven't told us anything…"

A heavy hand fell on either of their shoulders, startling them.

"That's what we're here for!" Mynap beamed at them. "Onwards! Let us storm gliders show you how to party!"

"Whoop-whoop!" the other three storm gliders and Tuk hollered.

"Come on," Mynap said, pulling them along. "Let me show you something the likes you've never seen before! And it goes without saying, but no aura!"

They joined the queue of apprentices and crew heading deeper into the confusing mesh of gangways that had been built deep in a darkened recess on the Labyrinth wall.

"Purple Haven, or just Haven, that's the name of the place!" Mynap shouted to be heard above the industrial noise. "It has a proper ID of course, but everyone just calls it Haven. Out here is the port, and as you can see, there's a lot of stuff going on, because if you want to avoid all of those freaking fees in the O-Nex, you come to one of these ports instead! You can practically buy whatever you want here, and sell whatever you want just as easily. And the docking fees are a lot, lot, lot, cheaper… Did you see all those big ships that stayed back, where the Scimitar was? About twenty of those are Tsurmirel's!"

Maybe one of them will be carrying our healer then, Nar thought, his head swiveling around him in a constant state of wonder, even as he grimaced at the deafening noise. Can't go on forever without one, hungry sword or not…

"It's a lot cheaper for us all to just meet out here, and stock up and offload our stuff to each other or to other folk to handle," Mynap said.

"The whole chain in its beauty," Kur mused to himself.

The red skinned storm glider barked a wheezing laugh.

"Hardly the whole thing!" Mynap said. "But there's another very important thing going on here... You see the white and blue ships berthed over there? Those are cruise landers!"

"Cruise?" Nar asked, eyeing the fat, tube like, white and light-blue striped ships. They were more windows and open spaces than actual metal constructs. "As in cruisers?"

"Nope! As in cruise ships!" Mynap said, grinning. "Tourists! People that come to visit and have fun in the dungeon!"

They nearly crashed into each other.

"What do you mean have fun in a dungeon?" Mul asked, his tone quickly rising and dropping. At his broad shoulder, looking around in wonder, the little wolf cub barked at everything, wagging his tail in excitement.

"Oh, right, should have opened with that…" Mynap muttered to himself, scratching the balding back of his neck. "Yeah, so, Haven is a dungeon…"

"Really?" Tuk shouted. "Wait! You're messing!"

"I'm not! It's an inactive dungeon!" Mynap said. "No beasts, no monsters, and no rules or exit conditions either. Just a capacity limit. Anyone can go in and out as they please, and since the dungeon is inactive, it doesn't reset! So Haven was built in there, and I'm telling you, you're going to love this place! Come on!"

Nar traded glances with Kur, who walked at his side.

"I knew it. I checked it last night," Kur said, smiling. "But I didn't want to spoil the surprise for you guys. It is supposed to be really nice there, and it's a very popular stop for low-cost cruise ships. I just figured we could use a good surprise for once…"

Nar shook his head.

"I'm still trying to get over the fact that people come into the Labyrinth to have fun!" he said. "How's that even possible?"

Kur shrugged. "Cruise ships fly in with armed escorts, and it's not like they're stopping off at dens, or jumping into confluences, so it's pretty much safe out here in the Outer Reaches. Ah… For the most part, at least. Accidents do happen, and you need to sign a pretty comprehensive waiver when you purchase a ticket."

"You don't say…" Nar muttered, looking as a new cruise lander disgorged a wave of excited people of all races. "And what in the Pile are they wearing?"

Kur frowned at the colorful, semi-naked crowd of people. They all seemed to carry tools of some kind and shape, and they were all extremely brightly colored and lit up in a cacophony of clashing and flashing dots and lines of light.

"That I don't know," Kur said.

"I see the entrance!" Tuk shouted.

"Haha! Almost there!" Mynap said, grinning.

Soon, they found themselves immersed into the flood of people trying to touch the glowing gray entrance cube that would lead them into the mysterious inactive dungeon.

"Stay close!" Kur shouted, lifting Cen up to his shoulders.

It would've been a lot easier if we had Gad to push through this, Nar thought, looking around at the confusion of races, colors, lights and deafening conversation.

Unfortunately, while Tuk, Rel and Mul had been cleared to go into Haven, Gad was still undergoing treatment. The illatrian had hit her the worst out of all of them, breaking, fracturing, and puncturing multiple things within the tank with its ice coated fist, the same blow that had sadly ended the life of the already injured wolf that had thought at their side. Though, hopefully, according to the healers, she should be able to join them on their final and third day and night out in Haven. Provided she took it easy, of course.

"Everyone ready?" Kur shouted, as he somehow managed to reach the cube. "We're going in!"

Blankness took Nar once again, and like before, his senses slowly returned to him, a soothing, rhythmic sound reaching his ears. Then, a gentle caress after the chaos of the port, almost like a whispered song, which was followed by a warm breeze, playfully ruffling his hair with a delicate touch.

Nar felt himself mollifying even before his sight returned. And when it did…

"Holy wow…" Tuk whispered. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"Nice, isn't it!" Mynap shouted, spreading his arms wide. "Welcome to Haven, kids! Follow me!"

Almost as though he was walking in a dream, Nar dodged around the crowds and followed after the undead and his storm gliders.

They stood upon a circular and wide platform made of dark, purple wood, hundreds of people clustered around them and with more arriving from the port outside the dungeon.

Above them, puffy, picturesque silver clouds drifted in a gentle lilac sky, and all around them, stretching into the infinite horizon, was a peaceful expanse of lilac waters, darker than the sky they mirrored.

"It's a sea!" Kur shouted, as he lowered Cen to the floor, her jaw dropping.

Five other similar platforms stood around theirs, standing over the sea on thick pillars of dark wood, and up ahead of them, beyond a gangway of the same wood, an island rose out of the gentle, lilac waters.

Silvery white sand gleamed in the distance, gentle waves crashing against the shore of the island, and a multitude of white and purple domed buildings covered the entirety of the side of the island that they could see.

The buildings went from the very shores, some of them even touching or built over and into the water itself, and climbing up through uneven, tiny, crooked streets, the buildings went all the way up to the very pinnacle of the island. Up there, was a building that reminded Nar of the chapel back at the cubeplant, the symbol of the Crystal radiating from atop its tall tower.

"This is beautiful!" Viy breathed.

"You see now why people come here to have fun?" Mynap said, gesturing at the crowded beaches. "You don't see this kinda of stuff in the Nexus! Well, not the real deal anyways."

"Are they washing on the… Oh. They're swimming," Cen said, as she learned the new word on the spot, courtesy of their helpful Scimitar data package. "But I… I don't know how to swim."

"It's not hard!" one of the other storm gliders said. Xer, Nar remembered that was the alfin's name. "We'll show you! First, you start with floating! That's super important, and most people…"

Nar tuned out their conversation and approached the thick, warm dark purple handrails, and looked down at the waves, flowing gently beneath them towards the beach.

"Wow…" he whispered.

The waters were crystal clear, and black fish glimmered just below the surface, their scales catching the light overhead in a thousand flashes of silver and purple.

"No! You can look, but you can't touch!"

Nar blinked and looked to his side. Mul had plopped the wolf cub atop the handrail, and was holding it firmly in his hands as the bundle of excitement barked at the fish below. Nar couldn't help but smile at the sight of the two of them.

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"He wants to jump in, does he?" Nar asked.

"Says the fish look tasty," Mul said. "Wolfie, no! Sit! Or I'm bringing you back inside!"

The wolf cub whined pitifully at Mul, his tail dropping.

"No! I didn't mean… Wait, I know what you're doing! You're not guilting me! You know damn well you'd jump down there if I didn't stop you!"

Nar burst out laughing.

"What?" Mul asked, as he pulled the struggling pup away from the ledge.

"Nothing… It's just, when I first met you, I would've never expected…" he waved at Mul and his bond. "Well, this…"

Mul looked at the wolf cub, who stopped struggling and gave him an affectioned lick on the nose.

"Well, me neither…" Mul said, placing the wolf back on his shoulder and rubbing his head with his knuckles. "But I can't say I really mind it, do I? No, I can't! No, I can't!"

Nar hid a grin as Wolfie rubbed his head on Mul's knuckles.

I'd say it's a lot more than that… Nar thought. The brawler was positively besotted by the little furry creature!

"But are you sure you want to call him Wolfie?" Nar asked, as they rejoined the others. "That just seems a little…"

"A little what?" Mul asked him. "Your name's Nar, my name's Mul, and the shitface, shit-eater is called Tuk. And unless you haven't been paying attention, they aren't exactly the greatest names going around, are they?"

Nar shrugged. "Yeah… Fair. Wolfie it is."

"Damn right it is," Mul said with a sharp nod.

Wolfie was a frost wolf cub, and he wasn't going anywhere.

When the COO heard about him, the shouting had been legendary. The whole ship had awoken in the middle of their return trip and heard every syllable that poor Jamios and Tyjakis had hurled and punched at them, though in the end, of course, Tys had relented, and commended the two of them for the quick thinking in a much lower tone. Just as Jamios had told them, Tys would've never happily yielded Wolfie to the Church, knowing damn well it would've meant Mul's death, but had she known, she would've had very little room to maneuver, and the shouting was indeed just meant to keep up appearances…

Upon their return, as Tys didn't want to broadcast it back to the ship on the aetherwaves, she had marched straight up to the captain herself, who had immediately arranged to commission the forgery of Wolfie's purchase in the ship's logs. Apparently, that same forgery was still going places at that exact moment, spreading a whole false trail of trades and acquisitions across Crystal knew how many of Tsurmirel's ships, divisions, sub-divisions, subsidiaries, whatever those where, and other entities until it disappeared in something Tys had called a "legalese Abyss of Pileshit". No one would ever be the wiser, even if the little cub drew eyes wherever they went on the ship.

So, its origin aside, Mul was free to keep Wolfie for… Well, the rest of his life, really. The two of them were joined by an unbreakable bond, their souls and fates intertwined forever, even beyond the unknown of death. The only thing that remained to be seen is what effect would Wolfie, who somehow had maintained his original ice affinity, have on Mul's path.

The masters and K all seemed in agreement that there would be an impact, a deviation from the normal path of a fire affinity berserker at the very least, but exactly what it would be and what it would result in, was anybody's guess. Bonded Companions, the name used to refer to duos or even trios like Mul and Wolfie, with split elements and affinities was an incredibly rare sight… A lot rarer even than hybrid paths, and no one seemed to know what would happen to Mul. Either they would remain as a fire and ice duo, Wolfie's affinity would change into fire, or Mul's fire would cool and eventually freeze into Wolfie's ice. Would that affect his rage affinity? Would it not? The jury was still out, and while discreet queries had been sent to Tsurmirel for guidance and research, it was still pretty much anybody's guess.

However, one thing that was undeniable was how much happier Mul seemed to be.

After being crapped on by his family for his whole life, it must feel nice to have Wolfie, Nar thought, looking down as Cen stepped in closer to hug her brother and scratch behind Wolfie's ears. Doubt he's going to be any less grumpy though.

He chuckled quietly to himself, and followed behind the others, stepping back into his customary spot at the back of the party as he was want to do.

"...is a place of fun. Of relaxing! Of healing one's mind and body!" he heard Mynap saying, as the undead walked besides Kur and Tuk. "Delving is not for everybody, and especially not the kind of delving the Scimitar is training you kids for."

"Deep Deep delving, isn't it?" Kur asked with a grimace.

"Most likely. Or at the very least, the uncharted areas of the Deep Zones," Mynap said. "The guild's been making a huge push into the Deep Deep and the unknown regions of the Deep Zones over the last twenty or so thousand years, and that has always made it very obvious to everyone that Tzurmirel is tired of playing number six and seven."

"They want into the top 5?" Tuk asked, his eyebrows rising.

"And how!" Mynap said, and pulling them in close, and Nar, curious, reaching for his [Hearing], he proceeded to whisper. "I got buddies all over the guild, and the rumor down the aetherwaves is that Tzurmirel has ten, whole, brand new, fuck you behemoth-class ships almost finished!"

"Really?" Kur whispered, his eyes going so wide the whites in them showed.

"Uh… What's a behemoth-class ship?" Tuk asked.

"It's a massive ship, Tuk. Usually between 15 and 20 miles long," Kur said, his tone ushed into awe. "And usually, every inch of it is covered in guns. Very, very big guns."

"Wow!" Tuk reeled. "Why do you even need something that big?"

"For the Deep Deep, man!" Mynap said, swatting the back of the truggers head. "The stuff you find deep there is nothing to mess around with! You need huge fleets just to fly there!"

"Remember those amphitheres they showed us before the confluence?" Kur asked Tuk. "The Deep Deep is supposedly filled with things like that. In the trillions and trillions!"

"Not supposedly, and not just trillions! They're endless!" Mynap said, pulling back from them. "But you guys seem chums with the COO, so why don't you ask her? She spent years in the Deep Deep before… Well, before she joined us."

Nar caught the shift in tone, and the hesitation that filled Mynap's voice. Tys had indeed mentioned the Deep Deep to him and Kur, and now that Nar stopped to actually think about what that meant, and with the extra context just there yielded by Mynap, Tys presence in the apprentice-ship did seem curious to say the least… And why was someone as strong as Tys chaperoning an apprentice-ship, when Tsurmirel was supposedly making such a push into the Deep Deep?

And the way he said it… Nar thought.

"Anyways, me and the squad are going to be showing you around for today," Mynap said, changing the subject. "We'll take you to lunch, dinner, for drinks, and we'll show you around to the place you'll be spending the night in, but for the next two days, you're on your own. Do whatever you want, just don't get into trouble, and use this time to have a real, deep, proper think about what you want to do with your lives."

A gang of kids ran past them just then, and Mynap followed them with a smile.

"If you want to reach the top of combat delver, to be truly elite, then Tsurmirel is your best shot at that. And if you want to do combat, but not as crazy as that, you can jump over to any of the other seven Tsurmirel apprentice-ships floating alongside the Scimitar outside. Dungeons, HOUNDS, storm gliders, whatever it is! All is good! And if you decide you want something more carefree… Well, you can always become a full gatherer and harvester class if you want to stay Labyrinth-side, or opt for a civilian life back in the O-Nex."

He squeezed both of Tuk's and Kur's shoulders.

"I tried it for a bit myself, you know, once I was done with my own apprentice-ship, but it didn't last!" the undead said. "Sitting at a desk, looking at screens all day is safer, but nothing beats riding out a good aether storm, you know? Plus… Things are cramped back in the Nexus! I can never stomach being Nexuz-side for more than a few days before it starts eating away at my sanity. All those people on top of each other… Bah, I hate it! Oooh, phari!"

They had reached the end of the gangway and Mynap pulled them towards a gathering of tents, several boxes hiding under their shade.

A few minutes later, Nar walked through a packed street of white and purple buildings, paved with white, uneven circular stones, music blaring from every single shop, restaurant and bar around them. And Mynap and the storm gliders excitedly pointed out and explained every new and crazy sight as it appeared before the continuously stunned apprentices.

In his hands, Nar held half of a bright orange sticky bulb, its sweetness dripping down his fingers, the other half being slowly chewed on and savored in his mouth. The phari had turned out to be a fruit, the only edible thing that grew inside Haven, other than the fish. It was a large thing, the phari, as big as Nar's chest, and covered in a thick, hairy, purple skin. Orange strings dotted the outside of the fruit, and it was by pulling them apart, one by one, that one peeled a phari, revealing the treasure trove of sweet, aromatic, edible, toffee-like bulbs within. And everywhere he looked, he was reminded that the phari were the only edible thing that grew within the dungeon, and in prodigious abundance at that.

People drank phari juices, smoothies and slushies. They ate phari ice-cream, cake and pie. Nar saw the bulbs sizzling over fire, boiling in giant pots, and even strung around to form noodles. They were fried, skewered, steamed, and subjected to any and all imaginable method of cooking and recipe, and the whole town within the inactive dungeon smelled of nothing else other than the sweet phari. It was a whirlwind of emotions, sights, smells, sound and noise and people, all within a warm, festive atmosphere of purples, lilacs and white buildings and streets.

"Ah! Look at this one!" Tuk said, holding up one of the souvenir t-shirts. "Keep calm and eat phari!"

"Awesome…" Mul said.

He now stood alone, Wolfie having returned to his core to rest, and he was staring dubiously at one, very bright pink t-shirt, with neon green letters that read "Wild and Free!!".

"Is there one that says: I survived a corrupted dungeon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt?" the brawler asked.

"No?" Tuk said, appearing to genuinely scan the pile for one such t-shirt. "But we should get one anyway! Matching t-shirts for everyone! My treat!"

"Ugh…" Mul said. "Do whatever you want. I'm gonna go look for some more of that fried phari."

"Wait! I want some too!"

Nar left the unlikely pair to their own devices and scanned the crowd in the small plaza they now found themselves in. The storm gliders had decided to camp out on a nearby bar, and had left them to explore on their own for a couple of hours.

He spotted Jul and Viy watching some kind of dance competition, Viy hollering at the top of her lungs and Jul looking embarrassed to be standing next to her, but also too invested in the dancing to leave. And a few steps away from the loud gathering, he caught sight of Rel and Cen queuing for phari ice-cream.

Again? It's their third time already! Nar thought with a chuckle.

As for Kur… Nar found him sitting by the tall water fountain, jets of purple water spraying in wild patterns for tourists to pose with. The party leader looked either lost in thought, or positively gloomy about something, nursing a forgotten cup of phari juice in his hands.

"Hey. You alright?" Nar thought, having reached him and taking a seat next to Kur.

"Oh… Nar. Yeah, I'm fine," Kur said. "Why?"

"You look kinda down…" Nar said.

"I do?" Kur asked, smiling. "Nah, don't worry, I'm just thinking about stuff…"

Nar nodded slowly, and looked up at the little white, shiny bubbles that floated around the square.

"Not sure if you want to stick with the Scimitar?" Nar asked.

"What?" Kur asked back. "Again? Why would you think that?"

"I don't know… It's only the one, biggest decision we need to be making right now?"

Kur snorted. "I'm staying, Nar. You're staying. We are all staying. There's no doubt about any of that!"

"Then?"

"Then… Then what comes after?" Kur said. "We do our two years, and hopefully survive it. And then what do we do? We're now living in a very XP-centric reality, so we'll need to keep earning it in some way…"

"There is that…" Nar said, looking down at the shining waters of the fountain.

"And sure, all this stuff they're teaching us will always be a very valuable skill set," Kur said. "When we're talking about delving and fighting, and all of that. And, maybe that's fine, I think? I love being a party leader. But when you start talking about the Deep Deep, and guild politics, and careers and all of that…"

He sighed. "I dunno. I just… I dunno if that's what I want to do for the rest of my life."

He stretched out his legs and stared up at the floating lights.

"There's so much going on in the O-Nex… You can, in theory, do anything you want for a living. Anything at all."

"And what do you want to do?" Nar asked him.

"That's just it… There's so much choice out there, so many things you could dedicate a hundred lifetimes to, that I don't even know where to start looking or what to consider," Kur said. "When I left the cubeplant, it was simple. Get out alive and be a good party leader. But now… After the Scimitar, I don't know what to do… To be fair, I guess I never actually thought I was going to survive that Climb in the first place."

Nar clasped his shoulder.

"But you did!" Nar said. "And you're more than a good party leader. You're a great one, Kur. And I would follow you anywhere!"

Kur laughed and looked away, his ashen pale complexion flushing.

"Yeah, right…"

"I'm being serious, man," Nar said. "I'll follow you anywhere!"

"Alright, alright! Not so loud!"

Nar grinned at him.

"As for the other stuff…" Nar shrugged. "We just got out, and an hour ago, we didn't even know what a souvenir was. And I know you know a lot more than us, with all those classes you're taking… But you need to give it time."

He laughed. "I'm sure that, other than me, none of the others have any idea what they want to do either."

"Except Cen."

"Except maybe for Cen," Nar said, conceding the point. "She's going to be one of the greatest auramancers the Nexus has ever seen."

Kur chuckled. "Maybe she'll be rich enough to just support all of us, and we can all spend our lives eating and drinking and laughing."

"And sleeping in the most comfortable beds," Nar said. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"For me, sure! For you? Nah! You'll be out here, I reckon," Kur said. "Or even all the way in the Deep Deep. I have a feeling you'll enjoy the Nexus, but out here is where you'll really belong."

Nar frowned at him. "How come?"

"Just a thought," Kur said, shaking his head. "Now come on. Enough of me souring the mood. Let's go look for something to bring back for Gad, just in case she can't make it."

"Oooh! Let's get her one of those funny t-shirts!" Nar said, his eyes glinting with mirth.

Kur burst out laughing. "Doubt she'll ever wear it, but it would be hilarious to see her in one of those bright pink ones!"

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