The freezing sewer water hit Kellen like a slap from reality's ugliest hand.

  

  [VITAL STATISTICS]

  Condition: Minor Injuries

  Stamina: 28/65

  Mana: 91/120

  Damage Reduction: 2%

  Knee-deep sludge. The smell of waste and damp stone thick enough to chew. His ribs screamed. His vision swam. Every part of him that wasn't already bruised decided now was a great time to join the club.

  He surfaced, gasping, flailing for purchase on the slick stone walls.

  Torian emerged beside him without a sound, water streaming off his armor in sheets. The Paladin grabbed Kellen's arm and hauled him upright before he could drown in the city's collective bowel movements.

  "Thanks," Kellen wheezed.

  Above them, through the jagged hole, voices echoed down.

  "They went into the sewers?"

  "After them!"

  "You first, captain."

  "I'm not jumping into that cess pit without a ladder!"

  "Then get a ladder!"

  "Where the hell am I supposed to find a ladder?"

  The argument continued. Kellen could have kissed them for their incompetence.

  "Kelidor's finest," Kellen said with a smirk.

  "Move," Torian rumbled. "We have maybe two minutes."

  He led the way through the darkness with surprising confidence. One gauntleted hand trailing along the wall. His golden aura provided just enough light to see by, a faint, flickering glow that revealed the slick stone and ankle-deep filth.

  Kellen limped after him, boots squelching through gods-knew-what. Each step sent a spike of pain through his ribs. Sharp. Immediate. The kind that made breathing deeply a negotiation with his own body. His legs felt like they'd been filled with wet sand. His thoughts kept sliding sideways, exhaustion blurring the edges of panic into something closer to numb acceptance.

  They reached a major fork in the tunnel. Three paths split off into darkness.

  Torian paused, listening.

  Kellen pulled a strip of cloth from his pocket, the same piece he'd torn off in the forest, to use as a tourniquet after the Void-Rat tried to chew his leg off. It hurt like hell, but it was healed now, courtesy of the old healer in Kelidor, but he'd kept the blood-soaked fabric. Call it sentiment, or paranoia, or just not having time to throw it away.

  Now it had a purpose.

  He walked to the left-hand tunnel and hooked the cloth onto a jagged piece of timber jutting from the wall. It hung there like a flag. Obvious. Recent. Desperate.

  Torian's amber eyes gleamed in the dim light. "You think they'll fall for it?"

  "You'd be surprised how stupid people can be," Kellen said, "especially when they think they're already right."

  Something shifted in Torian's expression. Agreement.

  "Truth," the Paladin said quietly. He turned to the right-hand tunnel. "This way."

  They moved deeper into the maze of passages. Cold water seeped through Kellen's boots, the chill climbing up his shins. The tunnels branched in every direction, stone and darkness that seemed to go on forever. Somewhere in the distance, he heard rushing water, a main line, maybe. The echoes made it impossible to judge distance.

  Torian moved like he'd walked these tunnels a hundred times before. Taking turns without hesitation. Avoiding sections where the stone looked ready to collapse.

  The air grew colder. Damper. The sounds of the city faded until all Kellen could hear is the drip of water and their own breathing.

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  Finally, Torian spoke, "I'm not guilty... of the crimes they say I committed."

  Kellen, "Oh are you on a wanted poster? Something about bludgeoning a man to death with a warhammer? 500 gold pieces reward? I had no idea."

  Torian stopped. "Watch your tone."

  "Look man, I know you didn't do it."

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "You're aura is intact." Kellen said while examining a gash in the wall, "As a Paladin you made an oath, right?"

  "I did." Torian said, knowing exactly what Kellen was gearing up for.

  "Had you killed this guy, your aura would have vanished." Kellen said, "The Light would have abandoned you... Can't be a servant of the Light and a murderer at the same time... Kind of surprised the church didn't notice that"

  "The church never truly wanted a hybrid amongst their ranks," Torian said quietly. "When they denied my ascension to Paladin, Captain Vale stood up for me. He was the only one. And now he's gone."

  "So why do they think you did it?"

  "They found my warhammer... next the bludgeoned body of Captain Vale."

  They kept walking. The tunnel sloped downward, deeper into the underbelly of the city.

  Kellen's mind raced. The pieces were clicking together. A murder. A frame job. A convenient scapegoat.

  Someone wanted Torian out of the way. Someone with the means to kill a Paladin Captain and make it look like a Torian did it.

  They walked silently in the sewer, after a while, Torian spoke.

  "I saw what you did back there," he said. "You're a summoner."

  "Yeah," Kellen said.

  "So why were you hiring thugs?" Torian's amber eyes glanced back at him. "If you can summon creatures, why do you need a bodyguard?"

  Kellen hesitated. Then sighed. "Because... I'm not quite a summoner just yet. I'm the Codex bearer... I started this stupid quest with three summons and they are very limited in the damage department."

  "You're the Codex bearer?"

  "Yeah and the next anchor has less than twenty hours left, before it destabilizes."

  Torian stopped walking. Turned fully to face him.

  "The Kelidorian Anchor," he said slowly. "It's failing."

  "Yeah." Kellen met his gaze. "And if it does... If it fails, the Veil will begin collapsing."

  The Paladin's expression went grim. "And if one Anchor fails, the others destabilize faster. Correct?"

  "Correct."

  "And you're doing this alone?" Torian asked. "Why didn't the order provide you with an escort?"

  "Against the rules," Kellen said. "Or so that's what they say... I'm supposed to forge my own path, find my own way... recruit my own help. It's not only a rite of stabilization, but also a rite of passage."

  "Given the current condition of the anchors, it seems like it would have been smarter to send you with help."

  "Yeah well, the academy tends to pick the 'traditional way' over the 'smart way' every time."

  Torian was quiet for a long moment. The golden aura pulsed around him, steady as a heartbeat.

  Then he straightened. Squared his shoulders.

  "I will join you," he said. "A Paladin cannot stand by while reality unravels. This is a burden far greater than my personal troubles."

  "I can't pay you much," Kellen said quickly.

  "I don't need gold," Torian cut him off. "The Veil is more important than coin."

  Kellen considered the offer, then said, "How about this," Kellen said. "You help me stabilize the Anchors. All of them. Keep me alive long enough to save the world. And when it's done, I'll use whatever influence I have as a successful Codex Bearer to help you clear your name and get justice for Captain Vale."

  He extended his hand.

  "Deal?"

  Torian stared at the offered hand. Then at Kellen's face. Searching for something... sincerity, maybe. Or desperation. Kellen had both in spades.

  Finally, Torian reached out.

  His gauntleted hand engulfed Kellen's. The Codex at Kellen's belt pulsed with warm light.

  "Deal," Torian rumbled.

  The light flared.

  Not a notification glow. A burst of golden radiance that filled the entire tunnel. Kellen felt something shift inside his chest, a lock clicking open. A thread of awareness unfurling between them, gossamer-thin but impossibly strong.

  And then the world tilted.

  He could feel Torian. Not his thoughts, but his presence. His resolve. The weight of his conviction, solid as stone. The quiet fury of a man who'd lost everything and still chose to stand. The grief, raw and unhealed, wrapped around a core of duty that refused to break.

  It was overwhelming. Intimate in a way Kellen wasn't prepared for.

  He gasped, pulling back instinctively, but the connection held. Steadied. Became something he could carry without drowning in it.

  The golden light pulsed one final time, then faded into something gentler. A warm ember instead of a bonfire. The connection remained, settling into the back of Kellen's awareness like a sixth sense.

  

  [PARTY FORMED]

  TORIAN RAKKIS - LEVEL 7 PALADIN - JOINED

  The connection remained.

  A new element appeared in Kellen's vision, a health bar, golden-edged, with Torian's name above it.

  

  [TORIAN - LVL 7 PALADIN - VITALS: HEALTHY]

  "Huh," Kellen said, still gripping the Paladin's hand. "That's new."

  "You've never formed a party before?" Torian asked.

  "First time for everything."

  They released hands. Kellen was about to suggest they keep moving when a new notification blinked in the corner of his vision.

  Red. Insistent.

  

  [QUEST UPDATE: STABILIZE KELIDORIAN ANCHOR]

  Time Remaining: 19h 47m

  "We need to move," Kellen said. "Now."

  Torian didn't argue. He just hefted his shield, the golden aura flaring briefly in the gloom, and gestured down the tunnel.

  "Lead the way, Codex Bearer."

  Kellen smiled despite everything. Despite the pain, the exhaustion, the impossible timeline.

  He had a partner. A real one. Someone who wouldn't betray him for a handful of silver.

  Maybe I'll live through this after all.

  He started walking.

  But probably not.