After Bariton finally got those words off his chest, it felt like a weight was physically lifted off of the bard. He danced with Shammus even after the two realized they really didn’t know anything about slow dances, at least ones that they both knew.

  Bariton let out a light laugh, allowing his tension to release completely. He could’ve sworn he’d never heard a tune as happy as his own now, as the pianist finishes playing the song he was.

  The Bard recognized it really well, holding onto Shammus’s gloved hands and noted the look of familiarity in his red eyes. The faint scent of lavender permeated throughout the ballroom as he looked upon Shammus once more.

  The ballroom was beautiful, but Bariton noticed something off about it, now that his emotional baggage was let loose, he’d let the cat out of the bag more metaphorically speaking, he was able to pay attention to things outside of his skills and traits, and outside of Shammus.

  “Hey, Shammus…” Bariton started, eliciting nothing but a hum. “Is it just me or is the geometry of this building shifting whenever we aren’t paying attention.” Shammus turned to face where Bariton was, and he nodded.

  “Yes, it certainly would appear to be that way…” Shammus stared into the hallway Bariton looked into, and the Bard knew for certain that was where the bar was just a minute before.

  “Maybe we were just turned around?” Bariton offered as a sort of counter argument to the claim, but when he looked behind him, he knew deep down that wasn’t the case either for the bar wasn’t there either.

  Rather, it was nowhere in sight, but he never left sight of said bar… Bariton now had a curiosity, one that went beyond the source of his lust and love. It was of the inner workings of this building. “Hey, Shammus.”

  “Hm?” Shammus’s head turned to face the bard, the familiar look in the eyes betraying how Shammus had felt over the past few days.

  “I’ve got a strange first date idea.” Bariton’s words were flowing more naturally than ever before; much less thought behind them than when he talks to the rest of the party. “Why not figure out this non-euclidian building?”

  Shammus’s silence afterwards ate away at Bariton’s confidence, but it was proven to be false as his voice washed away the tension like a hose with a dirty dog. “Hm, unconventional but fun. Precisely what I expected of you.”

  ******

  Clara and Judine were watching from the rafters still, and Clara almost fell when Bariton was guided into the kiss. It was funny actually, to have such a wonderful moment in such a warmly lit area.

  Reminded her of the campfire the party always made with Sornid in the enchanted forests and lighter deserts of the Tower. Clara saw them talk about something and quit ‘dancing’ if one could even call that such.

  Bariton and Shammus walked off and Pallad seemed eager to follow with his following speech. “Oh, what may those two be doing now?” Judine caught the paladin before he could rush off to follow those two.

  “Come on Pallad,” Judine tried to stay calm, nearly falling from the rafters of the ceiling as she pulled him back up into them. “Those two are probably already starting their first date, and I’m certain it’s strange in many ways.”

  Clara caught Judine slightly after seeing her feet slip a little, but she evaded a worse fate for the people beneath. Judine looked at least a little bit grateful as Clara allowed herself down from the ceiling.

  Judine and Pallad joined her eventually, Pallad slowly climbing down one of the supporting pillars of the ballroom and Judine simply falling through the people and landing upon the floor with a oh so graceful thud.

  Pallad landed a bit more aggressively, although he ensured it was safe before leaping down from the supporting pillar he clambered down. “Well, shall we go explore this building?” Clara asked the remaining members of her party, standing tall.

  Judine nodded, as did Pallad and they began to walk through the ballroom, where Judine noticed the change in environment. “Was the bar and casino not in this direction?” She looked a bit nervous, and Clara mirrrored her furrowing of the brow.

  Pallad responded as well, “Yeah, it definitely was just there, in fact I remember Bariton taking a drink standing right there.” Pallad pointed at the area with his hammer, and Clara just looked him over again.

  “Why did you think it a good idea to wear armor to a ball?” Clara’s eyebrow was raised, and Pallad shrugged in response. Clara didn’t drop the question and so Pallad finally gave an actual answer.

  “Wrath put me in the armory, and I don’t have many suits with me. Didn’t think the tower would be so social.” Pallad spoke as if the answer was obvious, and Clara couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the snide comment.

  “Well, I don’t think any of us thought it would be social in any margin…” Clara thought about how Shammus and Bariton must have thought of the scenario, and walked forward to figure out this ever-changing area.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  ******

  Shammus was led along by Bariton, and he simply looked at him with a fresh look in the eyes, and he felt a little shaken. He raised his hand to his lips when Bariton wasn’t looking at him, and he could’ve sworn he caught the bard doing similar.

  He thought back to the hallway, and then it hit him. Wait, he was trying to confess back then wasn’t he. Shammus had to tense his arm to prevent himself from facepalming as an inherent reaction to his own stupidity.

  Bariton was still leading Shammus along, a certain skip to his step, and his head was held high. Shammus was more busy watching the bard move him along this path to pay too much attention, but there was still some confusing parts.

  He saw for just a moment a stairway on the ceiling lead up/down into an upside down hallway, with a large chunk of the Void standing still behind some of the doors, sometimes shifting around as the hallway they passed by noted with nothing but his own memory, and it seemed the bard was noting the same as well.

  The hallways were all quite similar however, with chandeliers of candles every 30 meters, a thin archway every 10. Doors were placed against a wall in between the thin archways, and the red carpet with the gold tassels on either side seemed to go on forever.

  In fact, it looked like it had, the hallway going on and on till the horizon, but some of the vases and tables besides the oaken doors looked somewhat repetitive; and while the vases they passed by all had unique designs, at least in the regard of what direction the painting was upon.

  Shammus actually stopped in front of them, getting a good glance at each vase before being called upon by the Bard. Bariton glares out the window for a moment, stopping still. The candles still floated, and the bard frowned.

  “What may be the matter?” Shammus asked, curious as to just how hurt he was by his own response to the much more obvious confession in hindsight. He also let his mind wander into that territory.

  Bariton’s response was swift before long. “Are we more akin to the candles floating past, or more akin to the moon that doesn’t exist here?” The bard’s question didn’t quite sit right with Shammus, and he almost brushed past it.

  But he allowed it to fester in his mind, and the Bard didn’t move from the spot. The Swordsman thought, and joined the gaze into the candles. Shammus thought and thought, and watched the candles drift past, along their preset paths of the void.

  “We are more akin to the moon that doesn’t exist.” Shammus’s answer came along, with all the baggage he built along it. Shammus decided to explain his decision, removing the nuance. “For the candles, are more akin to the people within the tower.”

  Bariton raised an eyebrow, facing Shammus more directly. “I mean that as in; we are something, that were to appear, would throw everything else out of balance.” Shammus turns slightly, allowing Bariton to fade from view as he steps to the window.

  His reflection was clearly visible within, and he noticed how he hadn’t groomed his own face in the 12 years he’d been in the tower by now. “We are the moon in that were we to exist, everything needs to step around us like eggshells.”

  The swordsman was allowing his heart to spill into his words, and he felt vulnerable. But the Bard was open to listening, and wielded not the daggers Shammus was expecting. “I’ve lived with power well before this tower.”

  Bariton didn’t say anything, but he was intently listening as he moved a vase off a nightstand gently and sat upon it. Shammus continued on with his story, the bard catching his eye. “This power, is more of a curse in general society, I never thought to express my love for I’d only hurt them eventually.”

  Shammus opened up his stat screen even, knowing full well he was an SSR++ adventurer well before entering the tower, well before being banished from Forsivo until they needed him again. “But with you…” Shammus blinked as he stared up at the Bard, and in front of him opened Bariton’s information screen.

  He only cared about four lines in particular however. The four lines that showed the stats. “I was terrified to act throughout the weeks of training, even allowing my emotion to take control in a single moment.” Shammus kept on with his monologue, and Bariton’s jump up from the scan Shammus did wasn’t unnoticed.

  Shammus let his mind pause for a second as he thought of the beds incident, the warmth of Bariton against himself. He ignored how Bariton was technically the one to ask for him. “Ah, we both allowed such actions control us!” Bariton jumped up from the nightstand, and grabbed Shammus’s hands.

  “I was scared, when we first met you, I was terrified of the loss that was coming up.” Bariton began his own monologue, stepping around Shammus requiring him to twist around to face the smaller man. “I was given a prophecy, one that ended in one of our deaths.”

  Shammus was quick to snap to attention with Bariton’s talking. “Clearly, it was Sornid.” And there was that name again. “I mean, the white sleeve being kinda only Sornid, only he’d wear something silly like that.” Bariton got a little chuckle out, but Shammus knew how death felt.

  “And then, we met you.” Bariton looked at Shammus over his back, his hands behind the back as he began to walk forward. “Do you understand how terrifying it is, to train for a full year, and get 25 levels, and knowing the prophecy still went unchanged…”

  “...And then finding someone leveled so high, that the system warns you when you analyze them?” Shammus froze with the finishing of the statement, and he remembered back to the war. There was definitely somebody who fought on Lirdsuania’s side, especially SSR++ ranked people.

  And Shammus wasn’t always SSR++ ranked. But he played along with Bariton’s explanation, especially after he saw Bariton’s grip was tightened against one of his hands. “But then, we were given a chance to talk. While Sornid was dying, I was off… talking.”

  And Bariton kept his face away from Shammus, and Shammus decided to follow behind the bard. He knew the look of the higher face, and could’ve sworn he saw a tear fall. “And I can’t imagine how Clara feels, or hell, even Pallad or Judine. Those three were much closer to him, and I…”

  Shammus steps forward, with just one idea in his mind. He knew one thing for certain now, and that was his experience could be relied on here. He steps up behind Bariton, and gets closer towards the crying man.

  “I can help you learn how they felt,” Shammus stepped to the side, and avoided looking at the Bard’s face. He was unsure if the bard was thankful, or something else. “Because I fought in a war.”