Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Sebastian folded his hands behind his back. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes..." Misha stared at the badge as though the engraved word might change if she glared hard enough.

"Please elaborate."

"I’m not wearing something that calls me Gravekeeper." She lifted the badge between two fingers, holding it as far from herself as the small case allowed.

From her shoulder, King leaned forward to inspect it.

[It’s appropriate.] His golden eyes gleamed with immediate approval.

"You are not helping." Misha muttered for only him to hear as her jaw tightened.

[I am not attempting to.] King settled back against her shoulder, looking all proud with his honesty.

Misha held the badge toward Sebastian. "Can this be changed?"

"No. I’m afraid that’s not possible." Sebastian answered without so much as glancing.

Misha blinked several times, her arm slowly lowered. "Why not?"

"The title was registered after an assessment made by Young Master Elyes." Sebastian turned his gaze toward the room behind her.

Elyes finally looked up from his book. "It suits you."

"So it’s your fault." Her eyes narrowed as she turned the badge toward him like evidence in a trial.

He leaned back in his chair. "You carry dead people around."

"They are souls." Misha pressed one hand against her chest, offended on behalf of everyone currently residing inside her Soul Inventory.

"That distinction will comfort strangers immensely." Elyes lowered his eyes and resumed reading.

Misha simply glared at him but he naturally ignored her once more.

She turned back toward Sebastian, who had the decency not to look entertained. At least, not openly...

"Do I have to start introducing myself as Misha Apocalypse, the Gravekeeper now?" Misha asked as she looked down at the badge again.

"Only when someone requests to inspect your identification." Sebastian answered as he adjusted the cuff of one glove.

Misha opened her mouth, then closed it. The answer was technically reasonable, which somehow made it worse.

For the briefest moment, something almost resembling amusement touched the corners of Sebastian’s eyes. Misha caught it.

"I thought you were the reasonable one."

Sebastian’s face returned to perfect composure. "I have never made that claim."

Misha couldn’t help but sigh in defeat. She looked at the title again.

GRAVEKEEPER

It sounded gloomy and ominous, like someone who wandered through cemeteries after midnight, speaking to gravestones and frightening anyone unfortunate enough to pass nearby.

Admittedly, that was not entirely far from what her Class implied. She carried souls, and spoke to the dead.

Still, she disliked that image.

"I don’t keep graves," she muttered as her thumb passed over the engraved letters.

"No, you do not." Sebastian agreed softly.

The older man reached forward and closed the black case around the badge. The clasp snapped into place with a click before he pressed it gently back into her hands. "You keep what would otherwise be lost."

Her fingers stilled around the case.

Sebastian’s gaze remained calm and gentle. "A grave marks where a life ended." He slowly withdrew his hand. "A keeper ensures that life is not forgotten simply because it did."

The room grew quiet. Even Elyes stopped turning the page.

Misha looked down at the case. The black surface reflected none of her expression, but she could feel something tighten in her chest.

Jules appeared in her mind first. His broad shoulders and shy smile. The way he had stood again and again despite the fear shaking through him.

Then Nyxie, Gerbaut, and Tobias. People whose deaths had left spaces inside her that she still did not know how to carry properly.

The title no longer sounded like a person lurking among graves. It sounded heavier than that, more honest perhaps.

Sebastian tilted his head. "There are worse things to be called than someone trusted with the memory of the dead."

Misha swallowed hard. Somehow, the word no longer felt quite as ugly.

She opened the case again and removed the badge. Her fingers hesitated before fastening it beneath the clasp of her cloak. The silver rested against her chest, cool even through the fabric.

"Fine," she muttered as she adjusted the cloak around it. "But if people start asking me to manage funerals, I’m sending them here."

"We will direct them to Young Master Elyes." The old man stepped aside from the doorway.

Elyes’ head rose sharply from his book. "No, you will not."

A laugh escaped Misha before she could stop it. The sound surprised her.

Elyes stared at her as if she had done something mildly suspicious while Sebastian merely folded his hands again, though the faintest warmth softened his eyes.

The laughter faded into a small smile.

"Safe travels, Miss Misha." Sebastian bowed his head.

She looked at him, then toward Elyes inside the room. He had returned his attention to the book, though the page had not moved.

"Thank you." She rested one hand over the badge beneath her cloak. "Both of you."

Elyes lifted two fingers from the edge of the book in something that barely qualified as acknowledgment while Sebastian stepped farther aside.

Misha walked through the doorway and pulled it closed behind her, the latch clicked softly.

For a moment, she stood alone in the hallway.

King shifted on her shoulder. [You have unusual allies.]

"And you’re normal?" She began walking down the hall.

[I am magnificent.] King raised his chin. [There is a difference.]

She did not bother answering.

===

Genesis looked different beneath a clear morning sky.

Smoke still lingered over the eastern district, though the worst of it had thinned into gray threads. Workers moved through the streets carrying lumber, tools, and broken pieces of stone. Earth-aligned Awakeners stood near damaged buildings, lifting fallen walls while healers and volunteers searched beneath the remaining debris.

The market had reopened in fragments. A fruit seller had placed three surviving crates beside the ruins of his stall. Across from him, a woman sold bread from a cart missing one wheel. Neither had many customers, but they called out their prices anyway.

Genesis had nearly been erased. Apparently, commerce took offense at the idea.

Misha walked through the streets with her hood lowered.

She had spent days hidden inside a wealthy estate while the city tried to put itself together.

As she continued to walk toward where the portal was located, the stone wall remained visible above rooftops.

Workers had cleared a narrow passage through one section, but most of Tobias’ final structure still stood exactly where he raised it, cutting the capital of Genesis into half.

Misha slowed down, and for one moment, she considered walking toward it instead. She could visit the ruins of Tobias’ stall, and ask whether anyone had seen Kylo.

Her feet almost turned. Then the badge beneath her cloak pressed faintly against her chest.

Gravekeeper.

"You keep what would otherwise be lost." Sebastian’s voice returned to her.

Misha raised one hand and rested it over the silver. The title Elyes gave did not ask her to remain beside every grave. It did not demand that she stop living simply because others no longer could. Remembering them did not mean staying behind.

She looked away from the wall.

The small church came into view at the end of the street. Several stained-glass windows had been covered with wooden boards. The entrance stood open, revealing the blue light of the portal beyond the rows of empty pews.

No crowd waited outside this time. Most Rankers who remained in Genesis were helping restore order.

Only two guards stood near the church steps. Both checked her badge before allowing her through. Apparently, neither guard thought to ask where the rest of her party was.

The inside smelled faintly of smoke, medicine, and old stone.

Days earlier, the place had been crowded with wounded and terrified people fighting to reach the portal. Now it was almost empty.

Misha stopped in front of the portal.

She had told Elyes a few days back that she planned to use the teleportation rune and travel directly to Exodus. It had been easier than explaining what she truly intended to do when she already knew he was against the idea.

She was going to climb again from the beginning. She would pass through the floors between Genesis and Exodus rather than skipping them. Some part of her needed that.

Too many people already lived behind her.

Misha rested her hand over the badge.

"I’m going," she whispered.

King rose slightly on her shoulder. [Then stop looking backward.]

Misha stared at the wall for one last moment, then she faced the portal and stepped in. Genesis disappeared behind her.

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