Inara was floating in a gentle void. She could still feel the pain in her neck if she thought about it — so she didn’t think about it.
All around, she could see the moments of her life playing out like vivid dreams. They were disjointed, organized more by shared threads of emotion than by chronology, but she understood it all with unquestioning, dreamlike clarity.
Come on. I need you to be okay.
Inara looked away from the medley of dreams and into the eyes of the Hero who was doing his best to save her life.
James.
Inara realized with calm dispassion that she had a choice. She could drift off into the peace of the void, or she could return to a life of pain and fear. She knew — she had no doubt — that if she continued on the path of war, she would die. The only reason she was able to walk away from Malachai alive all those years ago was because of his own mercy. Each year since then, living amongst demons and basking in the infernal, would have eroded that mercy into dust.
But if she let go of that fight… If she drifted off to avoid that pain and suffering, what of James? What of Desiree? Would her daughter die in her place?
As soon as Inara asked the question, she had her answer. Even in the numbness of the void, there were unshakable truths of her being. Chief among them was that she would never abandon her daughter, no matter the cost.
With her decision made, the void receded. Peace and comfort gave way to sudden pain, sharp colors, and light that seemed to shine directly into her eyes.
Inara gasped like a drowning victim brought to the surface. She clutched at the arms that held her, disoriented and fearful for her life.
“It’s okay,” James said. “You’re okay. Desiree is okay. We’re all safe. We made it through, you’re okay.” He repeated the words, and variations thereof, in a soothing voice until at last, she calmed.
“What happened?” she asked. Her voice felt rough. It scraped along the inside of her throat.
James smirked. “You saved my life. Then I saved yours. We made it out of the dungeon, so you’ve probably got a ton of System notifications to sift through.”
“The System is back?” Inara scrambled to a sitting position. James helped her up with a gentle hand against her back, and she resisted the urge to lean into him.
“It is. I’ll leave you to it.”
James was right. There were a hundred notices waiting for her, most of them about her health dropping and the disastrous effect of Bleeding. She flipped through them all to get to the end, and she gasped when she saw how he’d saved her.
Vital Pulse: HP +5
Bleeding: HP -10
Vital Pulse: HP +5
Bleeding: HP -10
Health Potion: HP +98, Bleeding Status removed
He’d tried to counteract the bleeding with his spell, and when that wasn’t enough, he’d used his last health potion to save her life.
Inara wanted to cry. They should have saved that potion for their battle against the Demon King. That final confrontation was going to be the greatest test of their strength, and it did not bode well that they had to use their greatest advantage in the very first dungeon.
She was also overwhelmingly touched that the Hero had bothered to use his potion on her. As soon as they reached the second floor of the dungeon, it became more and more clear how useless she was as a party member. With her class locked she was unable to level or use her skills, and it was only because of the First Demon King’s mad use of his own skill that she was able to hold her own in that fight.
With the System restored… That potion had been wasted on her.
But she held back her tears and straightened her spine. James had made his choice. Come what may, she would have to do her best to make sure he didn’t regret it.
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One by one, Inara went to work reading through every notification the System had thrown at her. She knew well that gems could be lost in the flood, so she took her time sifting through it all.
Defeated Magma Demon lvl 25! EXP (LOCKED)
Defeated Magma Demon lvl 25! EXP (LOCKED)
Defeated Magma Demon lvl 25! EXP (LOCKED)
HP -250
You are Bleeding! -10HP/sec
You have met Hidden Condition 1/3: Save the Hero! Class restored by 33%
Defeated the First Demon King lvl 67! EXP +33,000!
Congratulations!! Your party has cleared the Hearthside Dungeon! EXP +83,333!
Inara’s hands shook. She read the notices again, tracing her finger along the words to make sure she was reading it correctly.
You have met Hidden Condition 1/3: Save the Hero! Class restored by 33%
Did that really mean…? Her heart raced. She was terrified of what she might find, but she opened her status.
Name: Inara
Race: Human
Class: Broken Reaper (EXP Gain: x0.33)
Level: 77
HP: 113/395
MP: 250/690
EXP: 116,333/2,500,000
Stat Points Available: 0
STR: 56 (140/3+10)
AGI: 54 (134/3+10)
INT: 29 (59/3+10)
WIS: 29 (59/3+10)
CON: 29 (59/3+10)
Skill Points Available: 0
Skills (Locked): Meditation, Mana Bolt, Vital Pulse, Tactical Dodge, Focused Strike, Identify, Endure, Second Wind, Reaper’s Reach, Harvest Step, Last Breath, Chilling Touch, Wax and Wane, Petal Storm, Sunder Veil, Reaper’s Grasp, Blood Rhythm, Lingering Echo, Scythe Memory, Crescent Rend, Gravewind Cloak, Black Petals/Red Snow, Reaper’s Tithe, Vow of Silence, Edge of Dusk, Unburdened Soul, Final Witness, Reaper’s Descent
Skills (Unlocked): Blood Price
Skills to Unlock: 9
Inara couldn’t breathe. Not only had one third of her class been restored, she knew it was possible to restore the rest. Virgil was right; she had wronged the previous Hero, and in order to restore her class she had to undo those wrongs.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up in her chest. She could return to her former glory… but at what cost? There was no doubt in her mind what the remaining two conditions were, and one thing was for certain. Saving the Hero had been the easy one.
**
While Inara recuperated, James approached Desiree. She sat by a tree, picking flowers and braiding their stems together.
“May I sit with you?”
Desiree shrugged.
James sat. She didn’t look at him, but that was okay. She didn’t need to see his eyes to hear the sincerity in his voice.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he said. “I was caught up in the heat of the moment, but that’s no excuse. I should have controlled my emotions better.”
Desiree shrugged again. “S’okay,” she mumbled.
“It’s not,” he said. “I was way too hard on you. And you… you never wanted to be a healer, did you?”
Desiree hesitated as if she was afraid of giving the wrong answer, but after a moment’s thought, she shook her head.
“Yeah… I should have realized that sooner. I assumed that since you have the holy affinity, that was something you would want to do. But I shouldn’t have assumed. I should have talked to you first and seen if that was what you actually wanted. So I’m sorry.”
Desiree looked up at him then, just for a moment, and James saw that her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
“I don’t want to be a healer,” she confessed. “I just want to fight. I want to fight so hard they can’t hit us.”
“I understand. And that’s how most of our fights went; we knocked them down so quick we didn’t take much damage, and we were able to heal slowly after the fact.”
They sat in silence for a moment while James weighed his next words. He’d never been a parent; never wanted to be a parent. Everyone always talked about how kids were impressionable, and he knew first-hand how childhood scars could stick with a person.
“Do you understand why I got upset?” he finally asked.
Desiree shrugged. “You wanted Mama to be okay.”
“I did. I was afraid we were going to lose her. But I was also upset because you kept telling me you would get a healing spell, even though you never had any intention of doing that, did you?”
Desiree swallowed hard, then shook her head. “I thought if I waited long enough, you would get one yourself and then you wouldn’t ever need that from me, really.”
“And I could have! I could have put more points into Vital Pulse or looked for another one to add, if I’d known you weren’t actually going to do it. But because you told me you would, I was relying on you.”
“I didn’t want to upset you.” Desiree sniffed.
James wanted to put an arm around her and tell her it was okay. He wanted to tell her that she never had to fight again, and that he had already asked too much from her as it was.
But that wouldn’t help. She was a warrior through and through, and he knew how determined she was to follow him into battle. Pretending everything was fine would be nice in the short term, but in the long term it would only hurt them both.
“It might have upset me,” James admitted. “But it’s okay to upset people. We could have talked about it, and it would have been okay.
“I would rather you upset me than lie to me, okay? We need to be able to trust each other. I need to know you have my back when you say you have my back. And I need you to know you can trust me, too.”
Desiree let out a sudden sob and flung herself against James, arms wide. “I’m s-sorry!”
He pulled her close. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay! We’re good. Just talk to me next time, yeah?”
She nodded wetly against his shoulder. “I will.”
“Still friends?”
Desiree sniffled and wiped her eyes, and when she replied it was with all the congestion of a good cry. “Still friends.”
