Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

"A certain someone came by and dropped that off here."

Misha’s eyes went wide. He knew?

Then her gaze slowly narrowed. He knew.

"Who?" She asked flatly, though her heart had already started hammering against her chest as doubts started mauling her mind. A dozen thoughts crashed into one another inside her head at once.

The old merchant stroked his beard as if he had all the time in the world and every intention of wasting hers.

"Hmm... He’s tall enough to be annoying. Definitely too full himself. He walked in here like he owned the place." Then his grin widened. "He called himself ’The One True Shadow Monarch, Devourer of Light and Hope’..."

Misha froze for only a second, then she physically cringed.

No way... Her hand flew to her face on instinct. "That idiot."

"So you know him?"

She grumbled out the answer. "Unfortunately."

The One True... Shadow Monarch... Devourer of Light and Hope...?

Really? Of all the names in the world, Caleb had truly looked at himself and thought yes, that one. That one sounds cool.

Misha closed her eyes for a second and pinched the bridge of her nose. The relief still came anyway, so strong it almost made her knees weak.

Caleb is alive... he’s alive...

That mattered more than the stupid name, more than the secondhand embarrassment she just had at that moment, and more than the fact that she was absolutely going to drag him by the ear the next time she saw him and ask what exactly had been wrong with ’Caleb’ as a perfectly normal name. It would have been so much easier to find him if he simply used his actual name!

Still, if Caleb was alive, then Mateo had to be alive too. She clung to that thought at once, hard enough to make her chest ache.

The realization rushed through her so fast that, for one terrifying second, she thought she might cry right there in front of Tobias and his pile of suspiciously expensive junk.

No! Absolutely not!

Misha raised both hands and smacked her own cheeks.

Slap!

Then once more.

Slap!

Tobias jumped. "What in the world are you doing?"

"Resetting myself." She slapped her cheeks a third time, lighter this round, then dragged in one deep breath and forced her thoughts back into something resembling order.

Her brothers were alive. That meant there was hope. No... it was more than hope. It was a reason that felt bigger than the grief trying to drag her down by the ankles.

It reminded her why she had entered the Tower in the first place. That alone was enough to stop standing around in Genesis like a haunting ghost.

She lowered her hands slowly. She entered the Tower not for glory, not for some heroic climb, it was for them. She came here for them, for her brothers.

This was the hell she chose, and if she had to crawl through every rotten floor with bleeding hands and shaking legs to reach them, then so be it. Let it be hell. She would still keep going, no matter what the Tower took from her.

Misha opened her eyes again, something in them had changed.

Tobias noticed at once. He said nothing, though the corner of his mouth shifted slightly beneath his beard. A quiet sort of satisfaction touched his face, the look of an old man watching someone remember what they were supposed to do after nearly forgetting.

Unfortunately, he ruined the moment by speaking.

"So," he said, eyeing her new cloak with all the dignity of a criminal pretending to be a shopkeeper, "that’ll be expensive."

Misha stared at him, clenching her cloak protectively. "What?"

Tobias spread both hands. "Ultra Rare items do not pay for themselves."

Her mouth fell open. "You just told me my brother gave this to me."

"Yes."

"And now you’re charging me for the gift?" Her brows sank into a deep frown.

He smirked. "Yes."

She pointed at him. "That is called theft!"

The old man lightly brushed off her finger with the stick he was holding. "That is called a handling fee."

Misha squinted at him. "Handling fee?"

"I stored it, protected it, and preserved it. Do you think quality service is free?"

"It was sitting on your shelf!"

He stroked his beard with a sly grin. "In a very secure emotional environment."

She actually laughed at that. It was not funny but it was mostly because the old man had said it with a straight face.

"You’re absolutely trying to scam me," she said with a pout.

Tobias pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Such language. Scam is an ugly word."

"Hmp! It’s also an accurate word to describe what you’re doing right now!"

He clicked his tongue. "You young people have no appreciation for refined business practices."

Misha folded her arms as she puffed out her chest. "My brother gave it to me. Why would I pay you for something that already belongs to me? Besides! I offered to pay for it earlier, and you refused!"

Tobias looked at her for a long second, then sighed like a man deeply burdened by this youth itself.

"Fine," he muttered. "I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll give it to you for free."

Misha blinked, then her eyes narrowed again. "That changes nothing. You were still trying to deceive me."

The side of his lips curled like an old cat’s grin. "Merchant’s instinct."

She rolled her eyes. "You mean greed."

"No. Experience. "

"No, it’s shamelessness, actually."

He grunted lowly. "You really are related to that man."

"Of course!" She placed both hands on her hips and lifted her chin proudly. "I’m his sister after all."

That part felt good to say, strangely good. Even now... Especially now.

Saying it out loud made him feel real again and not some far away possibility. It was not some half-buried hope she was scared to touch too hard. Caleb existed. Mateo existed. Her brothers were inside this Tower.

The old man turned away and started rearranging a few things at his stall, though Misha noticed he kept glancing at her from the corner of his eyes, likely to make sure she would not wander off looking half-dead again.

She touched her sleeve, it felt warm. Not physically, not exactly. It was more like the fabric still held the faint shape of the person who had once worn it. The thought made her chest tighten in a different way this time.

Caleb... The One True–

Honestly, the more she thought about it, the worse it got. Did Caleb seriously think he looked cool with that Tower name? What was he trying to be, Sun Woojin?

Sure, he was basically a budget Sun Woojin of Dual Leveling.

Still... Had he really introduced himself like that with a straight face? Had Mateo allowed it? Had Mateo stood there and listened to that disaster of a title that did not suit Caleb, and chosen not to hit him?

Misha adjusted the cloak once more, rolling her shoulders beneath its weight. It fit well, too well, as if it had been adjusted to her size. At least he hadn’t given her something ridiculously oversized.

Then she looked up at the old merchant once again. "I’m leaving Genesis soon."

Tobias nodded as though he had expected nothing else. "I know."

"I’m going to keep climbing."

He chuckled. "I know that too."

She hesitated for a moment, then asked the question anyway. "Do you know where he is?"

The old man did not pretend to misunderstand. His eyes softened again, only a little. "No, not exactly."

Disappointment flickered through her before she could stop it.

Tobias went on. "He only came here to drop that off. But he also left some words for you." Tobias looked at her more carefully this time. "He said he’ll be waiting for you on the upper floors."

Misha lowered her gaze and bit her lower lip. Why couldn’t that idiot brother of hers just wait for her in Genesis if he knew she was coming back? Why make her climb all the way up to look for him? Did he think this counted as motivation? Because it did, annoyingly enough, but she still hated it.

And Mateo? Had he agreed to this torture too? Or had Caleb dragged him into it with the same dumb confidence he used for everything else?

She sighed heavily. Even in absence, Caleb was annoying.

"What choice do I have?" She muttered in exasperation.

Tobias chuckled one again. "You really don’t have one."

She let out another sigh, though this one felt lighter somehow. "Anyway, it’s nice to see you again, grandpa."

"I hope the next time we meet, you won’t be covered in dirt and blood."

She smiled a little. "I hope so too."

She gave him one last nod, then turned to leave.

The streets of Genesis still glowed with late evening light. Lanterns swung gently overhead, and voices drifted from the market. She pulled the cloak tighter around her shoulders and started down the road.

A few minutes later, she turned into a narrower street branching away from the market and stopped when she noticed someone standing ahead.

The man wore dark leather armor with a fur-lined mantle over one shoulder. He was leaning against the stone wall as if he had been waiting there for some time, arms folded, and his expression unreadable in the lantern light.

Then he noticed her. His gaze dropped briefly to the new cloak, to the blood still staining parts of her clothes beneath it, and then back to her face. A slow smirk curled at his mouth.

"Well," he said, pushing off the wall. "Look who’s still alive."

Misha narrowed her eyes, her body went tense at once. "Kylo."

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