Ayden shot a lightning bolt, his most powerful spell, to break through his opponent’s shield. He threw another immediately afterward with his other hand and hit the undead mage in the chest. Finally, the thing fell to the ground.

Stepping over the decayed body, he sprinted back to the main room where he had left the others. A huge troll skeleton, the only one left, was attacking Matt. It slashed toward him, but Matt jumped out of the way, and then swung back. The blow to the neck broke its spine, and its head went rolling.

Ayden looked for Tess and gasped when he found her among the dead bodies and dismembered skeletons. She was lying on her side with her arms wrapped around her stomach, blood seeping from between them. “Tess!” he cried as he raced over and fell to his knees beside her.

Matt just stood there, staring at her with a face that was hard as stone.

Ayden rolled her onto her back, ignoring her moan of protest, and moved her arms away. He carefully pulled her shirt up a few inches and placed his hands on her bare stomach. Closing his eyes, he focused intently, though the spell basically cast itself since his desire to heal her was so strong. He felt the warmth of his healing spell pull through his body and tingle as it flowed from his hands into her.

When he felt the last of his mana leave him, he opened his eyes. He ran his hand across her stomach and then pushed her over to check her back. Satisfied that the wound looked completely closed, he wiped his bloody hands on his pants and then pulled her into his arms. “Are you okay?” he asked, caressing her face.

She looked up at him, her dark eyes glossy from pain. “Yeah, I’m good,” she said weakly. “But remind me to not get stabbed again. That seriously hurts.”

He laughed, mostly in relief. “Okay.”

Meanwhile Matt was glaring furiously at her. “What the hell were you doing?” he demanded.

“Uh, saving you, obviously,” she told him. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Are you stupid?” he growled. “You could have gotten yourself killed!”

She looked at him incredulously as she sat up, making Ayden let go. “I didn’t mean to get stabbed. I just wasn’t as fast as I thought. There was no time, and I didn’t see how I could hit the thing without it still stabbing you.”

“So?”

“So what? I was watching your back, that’s what friends do. I didn’t think. I just did it.”

He stared at her for a long moment, his eyes showing some inner struggle. Finally, he took a deep breath and softened a little. “Friend?” He said the word a bit awkwardly.

“Yeah. Sort of...” she said, ending in a mumble.

“In a Viv kind of way?” Ayden offered.

She laughed and winced at the pain it caused. “Yeah.”

Matt eyes narrowed slightly. “Who?”

“Vivyka. She’s a friend of ours... sort of,” Ayden answered.

Tess eyed Matt. “You know her?” Matt shook his head, and she let it go as Ayden helped her to her feet. “How come it still hurts?” she complained.

“Not much, right?” Ayden asked worriedly.

“No, it’s tolerable,” she said, rubbing his arm reassuringly.

“I’m out of mana, but I have a healing potion in my bag.”

“I’m fine, really. Give it to Matt.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she said nonchalantly. “I’m all tough and stuff.”

“Tess,” he said in a warning tone.

She sighed. “I’m good, honest, just a bit sore. Normal state of being for me.”

He squinted, making a show of scrutinizing her, then nodded. “All right.”

She smiled at him before turning to Matt. “Take the potion.”

Matt shook his head. “Save it, I’m fine.”

She motioned to his upper arm where blood was seeping from a puncture wound. “No, you’re not.”

“Oh.” He glanced at it. “It’s nothing.”

Tess held her hand out to Ayden. He took a three-inch-tall pink bottle from his bag and handed it to her. She shoved it at Matt with a hard stare. “Drink.”

He took it, continuing to stare at her moodily as he pulled the cork and downed it. When he was finished, the magic bottle disappeared, as they always did.

“So, Ayd, where to next?” Tess asked.

Ayden walked over to her daggers, which were no longer glowing since the spell had worn off, and picked them up off the floor. “I guess we should see what’s back there,” he said, handing her back her daggers then pointing to one of the doorways.

They followed him into a hallway that turned left and then opened into a room with nothing inside. “Same thing is through the other doorway,” Ayden said, referring to the one he had gone through earlier. “These are the rooms that held the skeletons.”

They went back to the zombie room and stood in front of the only logical place left—the huge mirror on the back wall.

“What’s with the picture?” Tess asked.

Ayden looked at the image engraved in the glass and sighed. “It’s part of Mortalia’s story,” he answered solemnly. “Goes with the statue.” He nodded behind them.

“That’s supposed to be the goddess? Why’s she crying?”

“Unrequited love,” he told her. “That demon there is Malluk.” He pointed to the left side of the mirror, where a monstrous man stood with his arms crossed over his wide chest. “That’s Mortalia.” He pointed to the other side of the mirror, where there was a woman gazing longingly at Malluk. She was reaching out to him with one hand, but she wasn’t even close to touching him. “She’s loved him for thousands of years, though Malluk has no heart and can’t love her in return.”

“Why doesn’t she just get over him and find someone else?” Tess said. “That’s dumb.”

“Love doesn’t work that way,” Ayden said, looking at her and smiling a little. “You can’t just stop loving someone. For a lot of people that’s a blessing, but for others...” He looked back at the glass. “For her, it’s a curse.”

“Who’s that, then?” she wondered, pointing at the winged man who was standing on the other side of Mortalia. He was looking at the goddess with an adoring smile and holding her other hand.

“Zavos, the angel of death. He’s her lover, her consolation. He doesn’t mind that she loves someone else, though, because he knows that she’ll never be taken from him. It’s not like Malluk is capable of changing... he’ll never love her, and so she’ll always stay with Zavos.”

“That’s sad,” Tess said with a sigh.

“Very,” Ayden agreed.

She studied the picture for a moment. “I wonder if Malluk’s lonely. Every picture I’ve seen of him always shows him standing alone, with his arms crossed like that. But if he has no heart, can he feel alone?”

“Yes,” Matt said in a quiet voice.

Tess turned to look at him curiously.

He shrugged and looked away from her. “I think he would.”

“If he does, and the only cure for that is to actually care about people, to love, the one thing he can’t do...” She shook her head sadly. “Then his curse is worse than Mortalia’s. I’d rather love someone who doesn’t love me back than not love at all. Then you’d really be alone.”

Ayden took her hand in his. “You’ll never be alone, Tess, you’re too well-loved,” he promised.

“Let’s get the dagger already,” Matt griped impatiently. “Standing around with dead bodies isn’t my idea of a good time.”

Tess smiled at Ayden, letting him know she was okay, and then turned back to Matt. “At least you can say you’re the life of the party,” she joked.

Matt ignored her and spoke to Ayden. “What’s it say?” he asked, pointing to the mirror, to the words engraved near the top.

“It says: the dagger of spirits lies beyond, for...” Ayden frowned in thought for a moment. “For those who have a heart that bleeds.”

“What’s that mean?” Tess asked.

“I think it needs the blood of anyone who has a heart, as opposed to Malluk, who has none, or any of his followers who have the gift of a cold conscience.”

“Ah.” She put a hand to her stomach then touched the mirror with her blood. “Thanks, big skeleton guy.”

Suddenly the glass completely faded away, revealing a tiny room with a silver chest in the center. Matt moved passed them. Taking the key out of the inside pocket of his jacket, he unlocked the chest and opened the lid. A silver dagger lay inside on a bed of black velvet. He stood and turned to the others. “Got it. Let’s get out of here.”

“Let me see,” Tess said, taking the dagger from him and looking it over. It was a foot long, with people carved into the hilt to look as if they were emerging from a circle that depicted an eclipse at the bottom, and moving up toward the blade.

“We should go back to that little port town,” Ayden said. “We can stay at Morras Inn tonight.”

“Why? It’s not that late—probably only noon or so. We can still ride for a while and camp on the mainland,” Tess argued.

“I need rest to restore my mana, and you need to see a healing cleric.”

“I’m fine.”

“You know my spell only heals minor things. I was able to close the wound”—he motioned to her stomach—“but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any internal damage—”

“Okay, okay,” she cut in. “I’ll go.”

“Or infection,” he added quickly, and she rolled her eyes.

“Not to mention we could all seriously use a bath,” Matt said.

Ayden looked around, noting how dirty and bloody they were. “Definitely,” he agreed. “Oh,” he said, glancing up, “maybe we don’t have to take the cave back after all. Look.” He pointed at a trapdoor in the ceiling.

“Okay, that pisses me off,” Matt growled.

Ayden smiled. “It’s probably a priest door.”

“Huh?” Tess asked.

“It’s a door that only opens when touched by the head of the temple. In this case, it would have to be Mortalia’s high priestess. See? Her symbol’s carved into it,” he said, pointing to the eclipse.

“So how can we get out that way?”

“Because it only locks from one side. They’re used for just these purposes—to protect valuable objects. They might open it to let people in, like whoever built this place, for example, then only having it lock on the outside would let the builders get out when they needed to without the high priestess. All temples have priest doors.”

“How would you know?” Matt asked.

“Her cousin’s a healing cleric, and being interested in how everything works...” Ayden shrugged. “I’ve talk to her about all the inner workings of the temple. And I read a lot, of course.”

“How much do you know about Malluk’s temples?” Matt wondered. “Anything to help us get inside undetected?”

Ayden shook his head. “I’ve never read anything about them, and aside from what Tess' family has told me, I don’t know much. People who go in don’t tend to come back out.”

Matt just nodded.

“Well, it should be a fun challenge, then,” Tess said lightly.

“Does anything scare you?” Matt asked.

“Nope.”

He smiled, seeming amused by her, as he usually was. “Come here, I’ll lift you up,” he offered, nodding to the door.

She put the Spirit Dagger in one of her boot sheaths and handed her regular dagger to Ayden. “Safer, I think,” she commented as he put it into his bag. The guys both nodded in agreement. She let Matt pick her up. She pushed the door open with no trouble and pulled herself up though the hole, then threw down the rope ladder that she found beside the door so the others could follow.

“You know, we could have just killed the high priestess and skipped the damn caves,” Matt said as he joined her.

Tess frowned. “You can’t kill an innocent person to get what you want.”

“I said could have,” he told her, rolling his eyes.

She chuckled softly at him, but then asked Ayden seriously, “Why couldn’t we have just gotten her to help us though?”

“None of a god’s clergy will interfere in the affairs of a different god,” Ayden told her. “It’s a rule set by the gods themselves.”

“Oh, right,” she said. “Except insane people like Kieran.

“Yeah, but her interference was the first in recorded history,” Ayden told her as he closed the door, then tried to open it again, verifying that it was in fact a priest door—it was. He stood up and looked around; they had come up into Mortalia’s true temple, as he had expected they would. They were standing at the very back of a large hexagonal room with walls and floor made of gray stone. There was only one window, which took up most of the front wall. Like all of her temples, it was dark stained glass with a clear circle, depicting an eclipse.

A statue of the death goddess, almost as tall as the twenty-foot-high ceiling, stood in the very center of the room. This one looked strong and proud. There were a few stone benches set around her and dried-out flowers lay at her feet. Aside from that, the room was empty. It felt more like a shrine then an actual temple, but then people rarely came to this one since it was off the mainland. So although this was built directly below the plain where she resided, Mortalia’s main temple, where the high priestess served, was in Talia at the foot of the Snow Peaks.

__________

That night, Ayden sat in a corner chair in their room at Morras Inn. He watched Tess, who stood looking out a window on the other side of their room. She was just wearing her blue underwear and matching tank top. Her hair was hanging loose down to her waist, still a bit damp from the bath she had taken before dinner. He was thinking about how most people thought she was plain. To him, though, she was completely perfect. He loved her lean figure with its gentle curves. He adored her expressive lightly freckled face, her warm, playful eyes, and her bright, unhindered smile.

He wished he could tell her how beautiful she was to him. He wished he could touch her and kiss her. He wanted to love her... physically. He wondered how she would react if he asked for a kiss—just a kiss, nothing more. Maybe she would say yes. Maybe she would like it. And if she did, maybe she would want more. He imagined it; kissing her soft, perfect lips, touching her—

“What are you smiling about?”

He came out of his fantasy and looked at her. He hadn’t notice she had turned around. “Oh... nothing,” he said dismissively, though he still smiled a little. “Just thinking.”

She was supposed to ask what he was thinking about, she was supposed to be at least a little curious, and maybe give him an opening to say something... but she just plopped down on the bed, fell back, and sighed forcefully as she stared up at the ceiling.

Her moodiness deflated his happy feelings, and he frowned. “You seem upset,” he said. He could guess what was on her mind, but he really hoped he was wrong. She had been fine all day. She had even been lighthearted and joking during dinner in the tavern downstairs. But when Matt had gone off with a pretty blonde, Tess had grown quiet. Ayden wanted it to be a coincidence, but he knew better.

“I’m fine,” she told him, though her tone was curt. “It’s just... it’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, it has,” he agreed, trying not to sound as gloomy as he suddenly felt.

It was quiet for a minute and then she said abruptly, “You know, I really don’t get the whole sleeping around thing. I mean, what’s the point anyway?”

Of course she was thinking about Matt. Ayden held in a sigh. “Screwing people is probably the only way he can get any affection,” he said snidely. “I can’t see him having any actual friends.” That took the steam out of her, and she suddenly looked sad. Great, he thought. Now she’s feeling sorry for him. Ayden had never honestly wished for anything bad to happen to someone before, but if Matt were to suddenly drop dead, he wouldn’t be heartbroken—in fact, he would be joyfully happy about it.

“But it’s not love,” Tess mumbled. “How can you feel loved by someone who just wants to have sex with you and then leave the next morning?”

Ayden scoffed. “I don’t think love is what he’s after. As if he could love anyone but himself anyway,” he muttered.

She sighed as she turned over to look at him. “Do you think that’s why he was so quick to think Malluk feels alone? Because he does?”

“Who cares?”

Tess frowned. “Why are you so mean to him? He’s not bad. He can be an ass, but he’s...” She picked at the blanket. “He’s okay,” she finished in a softer voice.

Why do you have to like him so much? he thought. “Because he... he’s mean to you.”

She rolled her eyes. “We fight, he hurts me. But I hurt him too, Ayd. It’s not all one-sided. And it doesn’t bother me, why should it bother you?”

“Why does it bother you if he goes off to screw some woman?” he shot back.

She glared. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” she said, huffing indignantly. “Why would it bother me? I just said I don’t understand why people sleep around, that’s it! I didn’t say I cared!”

“He does it because he’s a sleazy asshole,” Ayden practically spat.

“So then Viv is, too?”

No, he didn’t think anything bad about Vivyka. But then, Vivyka wasn’t trying to take Tess away from him. He sighed and looked down at his fidgeting hands in his lap. “I just think you seem to care an awful lot about who he’s with. Like maybe you...”

She sat up. “Maybe I what?” she demanded fiercely, raising her voice. “I told you I’m not interested in him. I don’t care what he does with some bimbo!” She moved off the bed long enough to yank the brown covers back, then got under them and turned on her side, away from him.

Ayden blinked back tears. They never fought, they rarely even disagreed, and even when they had a small argument, she was never actually angry with him. It hurt. He got up and went to sit on the bed, behind her. “I’m sorry,” he told her quietly. “Please don’t be mad at me, Tess.”

It took her a minute, but finally she rolled over and sighed heavily. “I’m not. Come here,” she told him, pulling the blankets back so he could get under them.

He quickly lay down next to her and she snuggled up to him, resting her head against his chest. He put his arms around her and gladly held her close.

“Sorry,” she mumbled into his t-shirt. She took a deep breath. “It really has been a long day.”

“Very long,” he agreed.

She glanced up and gave him a small smile. “Still friends?”

He smiled back. “Always,” he promised.

She looked down again and sighed. “I wish we could just go home,” she told him, then laughed humorlessly. “I know. What a lame adventurer I am. But... I wanna be home, even if it’s just for a day. I just wanna feel normal again.”

“Guess it’ll take some time to really get used to being on the road,” he said as he twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. “But we can go home. We’re heading to Port Vallyn now.” It was where they would be taking a boat to the volcano island where Malluk’s true temple was. “Brunya City is on our way. We’ll be up that way the night after next, and you can be with your dad for a little while.”

Tess smiled and hugged him. “I so love you! I didn’t think of that.”

“I love you too,” he said, his embrace tightening for a moment.

He was happy with the idea as well. Falcon would make things better—he always did. And maybe Falcon could even tell him that he was being dumb and imaging things, worrying for nothing. He would also like to see Matt have an attitude problem with the captain of the guard. Ayden almost laughed out loud at the thought. He smiled as he closed his eyes and fell asleep with Tess in his arms.

__________

Tess' thoughts didn’t stay on going home—the next morning, as they rode through Brunya Forest, they returned to Matt.

“Why do you do it?” she asked out of the blue.

Matt raised a brow at her. “Do what?”

“Sleep around.”

He looked at her as though it was a ridiculous question. “Why don’t you?”

“If I... do that... I’ll be in a loving relationship with that person.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s sex. Pleasure, that’s it. Besides, whether they stay one night or one year, it’s all the same. Everyone leaves in the end.”

“So, you’ve actually dated before?” she asked.

He let out a very quiet sigh, like he was sorry he had said anything. “Once.”

“Did you love her?”

“No,” he answered gruffly.

Ayden studied him. “But you miss her.”

“No,” Matt repeated, sounding annoyed now.

But he had hesitated a moment before he said it, making Ayden think he was lying. “Why’d she leave? Maybe you could fix whatever went wrong,” Ayden said encouragingly, wanting to steer him away from Tess, if possible.

Tess looked over at Ayden, confused at him being suddenly friendly and helpful.

Matt glared. “Maybe you can mind your own damn business,” he growled, then kicked his horse and rode ahead.

It was quiet for the rest of the day, until Tess felt too restless to ride anymore and wanted to stop a bit early for dinner. They set up camp near the Belthon River, where the giant sequoias started giving way to stands of cedar and other pine trees.

After dinner, Tess paced back and forth across the forest floor, barefoot, since her bootlace had decided to break. Her boots sat next to Ayden, waiting to be fixed while he mended her ripped leather shirt.

“Why aren’t there more monsters in these woods?” she complained. “Some goblins would be good.”

“We’re just on the other side of the river from the Saelythian elves. Goblins keep well away from them,” Ayden reminded her. “And you were just stabbed. It wouldn’t hurt to take it easy for a bit.”

“That was yesterday,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m so ready to kick some monster ass.”

Ayden smiled at her and then shook his head as he turned back to his task.

She walked over to Matt, who was sitting against a redwood tree looking lost in thought, and pushed on his shoulder with her foot. “Hey look, I found one,” she teased.

He glanced up at her and raised a brow.

“Well, a brute, close enough.” She grinned. “Come fight me.”

“Barefoot?” he asked.

“Sure, why not?”

“Okay.” He stood and flicked the rest of his cigarette into the fire. “Bare-handed, too?” he asked as he shrugged out of his jacket, so that he was only wearing a black t-shirt.

“Yeah.”

Ayden held in a sigh. Her whole life, Tess had loved fighting with weapons. She was never big on hand-to-hand combat unless she had to for training purposes. But now, with Matt, she always wanted there to be no weapons. “You haven’t sparred with weapons in a while, maybe you should do that,” he suggested.

Predictably, she frowned. “No.” She swung at Matt and the fight began.

But they stopped a short while later, because Tess got a bloody nose. She grabbed a rag from her saddlebag and held it to her face. When Ayden started to get up, she waved him off. “I’m fine. I’ll be back,” she said and walked off, disappearing into the forest.

Both of the guys watched her leave, each with a confused expression. Matt returned to his spot on the opposite side of the fire and lit a cigarette. Meanwhile, Ayden grabbed Tess' boots, then got the rope out of his bag and cut a few feet off one of the ends.

“Why do you do that?” Matt asked.

“Do what?”

“Do everything for her?”

Ayden started pulling the rope apart into smaller strands. “I like to.”

Matt studied him. “You really care about her, don’t you?”

Ayden paused to look at him, surprised by the sincerity of the question. “I love her.”

Matt nodded slowly. “Yeah, you seem... close.”

Ayden gave a short laugh. “That’s an understatement. We’ve been best friends since we were six.”

“Did she hit as hard back then?” Matt joked weakly.

“She’s always been a good fighter,” Ayden told him. “But I’ve never gotten her fist in my face.”

“Just her dagger in your leg.”

“That was training, it was different,” Ayden said. Now that he had a small enough strand of rope, he put the rest away, then burnt the ends a bit to keep them from fraying. He pulled out the broken lace from Tess' boot and replaced it with the rope.

Matt stared at the fire. “She’s strange,” he commented quietly.

“Strange isn’t the word I’d use,” Ayden replied.

“What word would you use?”

“Amazing.”

Matt shook his head. “You really are her puppy.”

Ayden rolled his eyes. “Anyone who knows her thinks she’s amazing. Maybe you’re just too self-centered to see it.”

Matt looked off into the forest. “Maybe,” he conceded, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ayden finished lacing up her boot and set it next to her other one. “Night,” he said. It was only just past sunset and still light, but not wanting to have to talk to Matt, he decided to go to bed. Though he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep until Tess got back.

“Yeah, night,” Matt returned distractedly, seeming lost in thought.

Ayden went to his bedroll and turned his back to him, closing his eyes and listening to the crackling of the fire. After a few minutes, he heard a twig snap and looked over to see Matt walking off into the forest the way Tess had gone.

It was as if someone had just reached into Ayden’s chest, wrapped a hand around his heart, and crushed it. He tried to tell himself that he was probably overreacting. Tess didn’t want Matt. It didn’t mean anything. Nothing would happen...