The walk back to their family's hidden camp was a quiet, tense affair. Tadao moved on autopilot, his legs shaky from the dual exertions of climbing and the strange, invasive nausea of his dashes. Rin stayed close, her hand hovering near the haft of her axe, her eyes constantly scanning the woods. She said nothing, but her posture was different—less dismissive, more alert, like a guard watching over a valuable asset.
When they reached the small clearing where Etsuo and Fumiko waited, the questions began immediately.
"Well?" Etsuo's voice was calm, but her eyes were sharp, missing nothing from Tadao's disheveled appearance and Rin's guarded stance.
Tadao slumped onto a fallen log, accepting a waterskin from Fumiko. He drank deeply before answering. "The abbey's fortified. High walls, one main gate. I got inside over the east wall using a tree." He described the courtyard, the monks, the scriptorium. "There's a locked door. Big. Carved with an eye over a closed book. I couldn't get in. The lock was heavy, and… someone almost caught me."
Fumiko's hands flew to her mouth. "Caught you?!"
"I got away. Used my dash." He didn't elaborate on the sickening sensation of blinking through the corridor. "But I didn't find any scrolls about Legacy Skills. Just star charts and geometry. The place is a library, but the important stuff is behind that door."
Etsuo absorbed the report, her face unreadable. "You were not seen?"
"I don't think so."
"He was good, Mama," Rin said, surprising everyone, including herself. The admission seemed to stick in her throat, but she pushed it out. "Smooth. Quiet. For a twerp."
Tadao felt a flicker of warmth at the backhanded praise. It was the first real acknowledgment of his skill since they'd arrived in this world.
"Then we have our target," Etsuo said, her decision made. "We cannot knock on the gate and ask politely for the book on cursed sex skills. We need to see what is behind that door. To do that, we need a distraction, and we need a key, or a way past the lock."
"A distraction I can handle," Rin said, a familiar, reckless glint returning to her eyes. "Make some noise on the opposite side of the compound. Draw their attention."
"Too risky," Etsuo countered. "If they have any defensive magic or guardians, you could be overwhelmed. We do this together, as a unit. But we need more information first. We do not know their numbers, their routines, or if that room is magically warded."
Fumiko cleared her throat softly. She had been unusually quiet, her fingers tracing the grain of her staff. "There might be another way. A… diplomatic way."
Three sets of eyes turned to her.
"We present ourselves as scholars," she continued, her voice gaining strength as the idea took shape. "From a distant land, seeking esoteric knowledge. We are powerful adventurers—they would have heard of us, or the guild would have sent word ahead. We don't ask for the locked room. We ask for access to their general archives. While we are there, under their supervision, Tadao can… investigate. If he's caught, he's part of the visiting scholar's party who got lost. It's less suspicious than being a lone intruder."
Etsuo considered it, her head tilting. "It is a thinner veil, but it provides cover. And it allows us to gauge them directly. Their reactions may tell us more than any scouting mission." She looked at Tadao. "You would have to be convincing. A curious apprentice, perhaps."
Tadao nodded. "I can do that." Playing a role felt easier than pure stealth.
"Then we rest here for the remainder of the day," Etsuo decided. "We approach at dawn tomorrow, with the sun at our backs and our wits about us. Rin, scout the perimeter one more time, mark any secondary gates or sally ports. Fumiko, prepare your mind—you will be our lead scholar. Tadao, with me. We need to discuss how you will signal us if you find something, or if you need help."
The family dispersed to their tasks. Tadao followed his mother a short distance from the camp to a small, mossy outcrop overlooking the valley where the abbey lay like a grey stone puzzle.
Etsuo didn't speak at first. She stared at the distant compound, her profile etched with a worry she never showed in front of the others. "This door you saw. Describe the symbol again."
"An eye. Open. Over a closed book."
"The All-Seeing Scribes," she murmured, more to herself than to him. "A sect devoted to recording all knowledge, but also to keeping the most dangerous knowledge secret. Borin's story aligns." She turned to him. "Your dash. You used it to evade discovery. How did it feel?"
"Wrong," Tadao admitted, the memory of the pressure making his stomach clench. "Like I was squeezing through something that wasn't there. It made me dizzy. Sick."
"Pushing a skill beyond its intended purpose can have costs," she said, her voice low. "Be careful, Tadao. We do not understand the rules of this world, or our place in them. We are already marked by one… aberration. Do not invite another."
He heard the fear beneath the warning. "I'll be careful."
She reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, her grip firm and warm. "I am proud of you. What you did today took courage of a different kind. Not the roar of battle, but the silence of the hunt. Your father would be proud too."
The words landed like a physical weight, a balm and a burden all at once. He wanted to live up to them so badly it hurt. "I just want to help. To fix this."
"I know." She squeezed once, then let go, the warrior-mask slipping back into place. "Now. Signals. If you are in the archives and you find a way to the locked door, you cannot simply vanish. You must have a reason to wander. If you need to create a diversion for yourself, drop something. A scroll case. Make a noise. Fumiko or I will feign clumsiness or ask a distracting question. If you are in imminent danger, call out. Do not try to be a hero alone in the dark. We are a family. We succeed or fail together."
He nodded, committing the instructions to memory.
"And Tadao…" Her voice dropped even further. "If you feel anything… strange. Any pull, or urge, like the one your sisters described… you get out. Immediately. Do you understand?"
A cold trickle ran down his spine. He hadn't even considered that Skill XXX might affect him. He had no special legacy skill, just a lousy dash. But the possibility was now a ghost in the room. "I understand."
They returned to camp as the afternoon light began to slant through the trees, painting long, dramatic shadows. Rin was already back, sketching a rough map in the dirt with a stick.
"One small postern gate on the south wall," she reported, not looking up. "Heavy iron, looks unused. Vine-covered. No visible patrols on the walls, but I heard chanting from within around midday. Liturgical, probably. They have routines."
Fumiko was sitting cross-legged, her eyes closed, her staff across her lap. She was muttering under her breath, practicing what Tadao assumed were scholarly greetings or complex questions in the local tongue. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, but a faint, magical glow—a soft, shimmering gold—licked at the runes on her staff. The wind affinity, responding to her focus.
The sight was beautiful and deeply unsettling. That power was born from a night she wanted to forget. It was inside her now, a permanent, tainted guest.
They ate a cold supper of travel rations, the silence among them a shared, nervous thing. As dusk fell and they prepared their bedrolls, the tension found its way into the small spaces between them.
Tadao was checking the edge of his short sword when Fumiko sat down beside him. "Thank you," she said quietly.
"For what?"
"For going in there. For trying." She wrapped her arms around her knees. "I've been… turning the magic over in my mind. Trying to separate the feeling