"Now I realise why only Shiv and I make plans," Horus said with a sigh. "The two of you wouldn't last long on the third floor."
Wally rolled his eyes. "You haven't been there, how can you be sure—Also June, why are you nodding like you even understand what he means."
June blinked. "Why are you attacking me? All I did was nod." She muttered, before turning to Horus. "Can I see the map?"
He passed it over without a word, still running the problem through his mind.
All the second floor exits are blocked by Urchin. While Ulrich, Shiv and some other Inheritors roamed the area looking for Wally—they obviously realised the explosion didn't kill him.
But who knows whether Urchin wasn't on the third floor too. It didn't have as many exits as the second floor so they'd be easier to cover.
"It's a trap," Horus concluded.
John raised his head from his map. "How?"
"They're driving us to the third floor, which has less exits. Whatever they have planned for us there will be bad. I say we take a second floor exit, draw them into the tunnels and I kill them."
"I believe you could, buddy, but I doubt it," Wally said, shaking his head. "You probably raised some skills to Adept and you're planning to surprise them. But they're smart, they always respect Stat blindness and they'll respect it even more with you."
Horus clicked his tongue. He wasn't wrong. Stat blindness meant you could never tell an Awakener's true stats unless they showed you their status. It was a big sign of trust to even do that.
There were ways to check how strong an Awakener might be using a [Perception] skill upgrade, but that didn't mean it couldn't be tricked.
June suddenly raised a hand. "How about we compromise?"
Wally rolled his eyes at her. "What? We go to floor two and a half?"
Shooting a glare at her brother, June stabbed her finger at the map. "We go to the third floor but not an exit."
◇◇◇
They immediately got moving, crawling down a narrow tunnel to the third floor. Wally led the way with his shield held out, even though Horus was scanning the tunnel ahead with his life sense.
June was behind her brother in a whispered argument. Horus was giving them some distance and plugging his ears. He was at the back, while John was in front of him as a precaution.
"You guys are close," John said, glancing from June to Horus and his covered ears.
"Not really."
The silence wasn't given long enough to rest. John turned back to him. "Hey, about Kon—"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me. I've given up on understanding why you guys would do something like that."
"Then let me explain," John insisted. He sighed, rubbing his face. "Back then it didn't seem… like it mattered."
"Ripping out someone's eye?"
"Yes. I know you think we were mad or just psychos… and maybe you aren't wrong. But to us Kon was so annoying and meaningless. Mundanes were beasts of burden for Awakeners, unable to be more than an assistant."
The words weren't unfamiliar to Horus. Someone with the Doctor class could gain skills that would help him significantly, while a Mundane that studied Medicine was just more limited.
People in technical roles like that were often just called assistants. Medical assistant, Engineering assistant, Chef assistant.
Because that was the best they could offer. Assistance.
John scratched his head. "Having Wally, Kon and other mundanes in Formation school with us felt demeaning. They were meant to be in the field, providing labor, but here they were competing with us. And in some cases even winning. I think that's why Shiv became so popular."
Shiv's parents were Mundanes before awakening. They got simple mage classes and weren't good in combat, but they applied their skills to farming and medicine and gained fortune and enough recognition to live in Fort Thunder.
Horus remembered Shiv hadn't been very popular until first term ended and she topped academic results, above Wally and some Mundane girl Horus didn't remember, who took second and third respectively.
"Kon just got on our nerves, but we always antagonised him. The day before it happened, my father had been… angry with me for placing lower than Kon. When I got to school, all I was looking for was a fight with him, and then I did that. I've wanted to apologise for so long, but I felt scared. So when Wally told me what happened, I just felt empty."
Horus' eyebrows scrunched up. "What happened?"
"Kon's dead," John said with an annoyed face. "But yeah, I guess you might not have known."
John turned forward, growing silent. But Horus' eyes were fixed on June's back, where her curly, fiery hair fell.
Why did she lie?
◇◇◇
"How can you even consider staying?!" June hissed. She couldn't believe her eyes, her brother was insane. He was feeling mad. "They just tried to blow you up. They'll have a fun time carving you up if they even catch you."
"Death threats aren't all that bad, they're like confessions of love," Wally suggested. "All they tell you is that someone has a momentarily, but very potent, feeling about you. But trying to kill me only tells me they're scared and out of options. How cute."
June stared at his enormous head blankly. What an overinflated ego. He must think he's immortal.
"I can't believe I didn't leave with Elle. I came back for a mad man."
"Awwww, little sister was worried about her big brother."
The temporary scuffle that unfolded between June and Wally greatly confused Horus and John behind them.
June reached into Wally's armor and pinched while kicking his shins. Wally had one hand on her face, keeping her at bay.
She batted his hand aside and blew a hair from her face. "I would never know you died. I'd been sending you texts and you've never replied. I wonder how I'd find out that the last member of my family was dead. Do you ever think about anything but yourself?"
"Yeah. That's all I do."
Wally gave her that infuriating smirk. "I never told you what you could or couldn't do after that day. I hope you'll understand that it goes both ways."
Well she didn't want it to go both ways. She remembered the day Wally told her she couldn't be a musician. And she remembered the day she proved him wrong. They promised to never try to tell each other what they could or couldn't do.
Which she was regretting right now. There was nothing Wally could do to change this forsaken place. Bloodhaven was too set in its way. People like Ulrich and John didn't see what they did as wrong. They saw violence as a necessity, cruelty was their duty.
The obedience of Mundanes was a supreme virtue, any challenge was a challenge to their very being and it was to be met with utter annihilation.
"You don't owe anybody anything. You've fought the hardest for people, some of which think you're a fool."
"No. I owe everyone something, I wasn't born into this world alone. But more than anything I owe myself."
June sighed, "Elle was right. We never know when to give up. You can't see that we've lost."
"We haven't, June. As long as someone is still fighting we aren't done. And I learnt that from you, because you're a fighter. You make everything seem possible."
June launched herself into his hands. Wally caught her, wrapping her in a tight hug, something they hadn't done for a long time.
"If I left and they killed you, I would have come back. And I wouldn't rest till I burnt this place down."
Wally chuckled. "I fully believe you."