Chapter 45

Zoey woke first. She drifted to consciousness, morning sunlight trickling in through the window, pressed in by a soft body.

Her eyes opened to a sleeping Rosalie.

Zoey sighed.

They’d gone to sleep on separate halves of the bed, but had, of course, intertwined while asleep. She and Rosalie had become easily acquainted with each other’s bodies, so night-time cuddling was an inevitability.

Zoey basked in the moment. Sleep-addled and her brain not fully roused, the arguments—dilemmas—of yesterday didn’t breach the warm glow of Rosalie tucked into her.

It was crazy how different she looked, asleep. Even more than most people, Rosalie walked around wearing an expression carved from steel. ‘Gentle and serene’ was a description ill-fitting her. And while Zoey wanted to draw out a more easy-going side of Rosalie, she knew that wasn’t Rosalie at her core. Zoey needed to accept that if she ever wanted ... something with her.

Rosalie was married to her work, to use a comparison Zoey could understand. Maybe romance was possible, but trying to claim first priority in Rosalie’s life would be selfish. She’d trained her entire life for wayfaring, and had responsibilities to her family, besides.

Zoey sighed a second time, and maybe it was louder than she meant, because the blonde woman in her arms stirred.

Pale, ice-blue eyes blinked up at her. Zoey simply studied her back, watching the crease-lines return, the sleeping serenity melt from her face.

Rosalie sighed, then snuggled in closer.

Zoey squeezed back. “Morning.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Zoey chuckled, pressing her forehead into Rosalie’s. She closed her eyes.

They mutually enjoyed each other’s warmth, ignoring the problem hanging over their heads.

“One of my runes evolved,” Zoey murmured.

“Mine as well. Which?”

“How would I know?”

A pause, then a soft snort. “Right. Another thing you need to learn.”

A short silence at the reminder of Zoey’s deficiencies.

“You can check,” Zoey offered. She didn’t bother asking what Rosalie’s evolved rune had provided. She was, unsurprisingly, tight-lipped about her skills, even to Zoey.

‘Even to Zoey’. Zoey had only known Rosalie for a handful of days. Even if they’d become fast ... friends? ... she was overestimating what, exactly, they had together. Why would Rosalie share her runes and skills in detail? In her culture, it was apparently a deeply intimate secret.

Like had happened a few times before, Rosalie’s finger went to Zoey’s forehead. There was a brief pause as she scanned Zoey’s tabula anima.

She stiffened.

Then shot up in bed, throwing the covers off.

“What is it?” Zoey asked, sitting up herself. Rosalie’s shocked reaction—though her face stayed calm, but in a frozen-disbelief kind of way—had worked to get Zoey’s heart pumping. The tenderness of their intimacy faded away, and the cold air of the inn room seeped in.

Rosalie opened her mouth, then closed it.

“What?” Zoey repeated. “It’s that weird?” She’d grown used to expecting strange things from her class and circumstances, but so should Rosalie have.

“Not weird,” Rosalie said. Her brow furrowed. “ ... convenient.”

Convenient?

“Clue me in?”

“Your Rune of Bonding evolved,” Rosalie said. “The newest skill is called Growth.” She rattled off the next as if she were reading from a page: “Shards provide additional experience for each day spent between entry. Applies to both rune-holder and bonded targets.”

Zoey absorbed the announcement, stunned. The implications were obvious. ‘Convenient’, Rosalie had said. A solution, dropped into their lap, just like that?

After all that agonizing over Rosalie’s need to be quickly progressing through shards, an explicit incentive to take things easy had been provided through her class?

It was as if a meddling goddess was trying to keep her and Rosalie from splitting up.

Was it even that, though? Or a coincidence? Zoey’s Rune of Bonding had already indicated its purpose was to aid her and her bonded targets. Alacrity, her first-advancement skill, specifically evolved bonded target’s runes faster. So this newest one fit with that. The skill had hardly come out of nowhere. Zoey could even make the argument it was a natural extension.

But the how didn’t matter, did it?

A grin crept across Zoey’s lips.

“That’s good news, right?” Rosalie surely had to have understood the implications behind Zoey’s skill—that it solved their dilemma. Or ... maybe not solved. But alleviated? It might not make up the entire difference—constant, vigilant wayfaring might provide more experience than the skill’s ‘between-shard’ bonus offered—but at least it was something. It was a reason to stay together.

“Good news,” Rosalie echoed. She chewed her lip, as if hesitant to let herself be happy at the development. “It depends on how significant the bonus is.”

“Knowing my class?” Rosalie had made it clear that Zoey’s skills were powerful, both by nature—the ability to amplify experience gained—and by potency, like how her Lust resource made her spells much stronger than a regular caster’s ought to be. “It can’t be weak, that much feels safe.”

Zoey could tell Rosalie agreed, but she still seemed hesitant. Zoey got the feeling after so much deliberation, having a neat solution like this had triggered some dubious part of her nature: a slowness to let herself be hopeful.

“It ... likely wouldn’t be,” Rosalie said, almost begrudgingly. “But how strong?” She shook her head, as if contradicting herself. “Like you said, considering your other skills ... your first-advancement skill already had my own rune advancing, which is absurd.”

Zoey, at least, wasn’t as slow to celebrate. The smile finished creeping across her face, and Rosalie frowned at her, as if annoyed Zoey wasn’t having the same doubts.

“It’s worth testing,” Zoey said, rolling her eyes. “It means we can ... put this decision off, in the worst case. Let the bonus build up, then, say, a week or two from now, go on our next. If the extra experience isn’t worth it...” she shrugged. Problems for later. After mulling over a seemingly impossible problem to solve—at least for Zoey, since the dilemma was entirely with Rosalie’s internal motivations—having even a half-solution elated her. Zoey practically vibrated with excitement.

She shuffled forward and grabbed Rosalie’s hands. Her demeanor was finally breaking, a hesitant smile touching her lips.

“I suppose ... what you’re saying does make sense.” She wavered, some of her growing optimism disappearing. “But it doesn’t bother you?”

“Bother me?”

“Why don’t you mind? That I ... might have chosen to leave.”

Zoey paused. “I mean, I understand your reasoning. You made it clear what your priorities are from the moment I met you. And...” Zoey hesitated on saying the next part. “And we aren’t girlfriends, are we? So we don’t have any obligations to each other.”