Now that was a statement to send a chill down a girl's spine.

  Elida liked 'hurting things' more than most people?

  And she didn't miss the word Vaa had chosen to summarize what she'd seen of Elida. The 'eg thread' to Elida's challehe way she reacted.

  Angry.

  At someone, something, maybe the world.

  Natalie had caught a glimpse of that cold-boiling fury herself, once.

  ***

  "Oh, please. Dearest Elizabeth. Nobody smiles that mud means it. Nobody's that …" Elida's lip pulled back, and she waved her hands in an exaggerated way that, oddly, made Natalie uand what she was getting at. Liz was aic, sociable person, to a sometimes amusing degree. "Much less a Beaumon," Elida said. "No, she's as much a schemer as any of us. You'd be a moron to think otherwise. Seriously. She's a Beaumon." Elida ughed. "Not that you uand what that means. I'm almost jealous of ynorance."

  Agitation appeared on Elida's face, ing surprisingly fast—almost out of nowhere. Her wrew hot, too.

  "And even if it wasn't an act," she sneered. "It's because she's just been handed everything. Do you know what I've had to do, to get where I am? To get approval from my family? That bubbly bitch is just waltzing through life. No wonder she smile so much."

  ***

  The outburst had been uncharacteristic, appearing in a fsh. It had only been a single instance, so Natalie hadn't let it influence her entire opinion of Elida—at least when it came to who her spht be.

  But with Vaa's insight?

  Ahe guiding force behind that toxic, sweet mask was anger?

  Was her spe, then?

  Even now, she couldn't be certain. It could just be a facet of the woman's personality. But it had jumped to the forefront of the possibilities, as far as Natalie was ed.

  "I see," she finally said. "Should I … be worried, about that?"

  She'd thought ing down into the dungeon with Elida would be a nuisance, but nothing truly dangerous, because of the political situatioween Parda-Halt and Beaumons. She was doubting herself now.

  Vaa g her, then blinked. "Oh, no," she said. "I don't mean she's … well, she might be a little bit of a psychopath," she admitted. "But she's not, I don't know, a deranged murderer. I've seen those sorts, too. She's just …"

  A pause, then a dry ugh.

  "Passionate," she said. "In a way most people 't uand, maybe." She shrugged. "I respect it, holy. The only kind of person I 't respect, is someone who wants something badly, but does nothing about it. And if there's anything in the world Elida is doing—she's getting what she wants." She hummed. "She's angry about something, and it drives her. It's why I agreed to be her teammate, even if I don't like her very much. I'd rather respeeohan like them."

  Natalie couldn't say she agreed with that se at all.

  The versation dried up there. Half because it had run its course, and half because it was time to get a move on.

  She was somewhat distracted in the following fights, and a slip-up that resulted in a shoulder-blow that forced her to take one of their three healing potions brought her head bato the game: she discarded from her mind what she'd learned of Elida and focused on the dungeon with as much crity as she should've from the start.

  As they he City of Eros, Natalie's own curiosity and apprehension grew. Just what was in store for them? She hadn't given Vaa any guesses half because she genuinely wasn't sure, and half because she didn't want to suggest something overly lewd only to discover what was awaiting them was chaste in parison. Somehow she doubted that though. Lust's influence over the floor seemed strohan most, seeing how the ehing was themed around the City of Eros, with all monsters dropping Toke to be spent there. It wouldn't make sense for such a promi, and thematically named pce, to be chaste.

  What did that mean for the delve with Elida? And Vaa, for that matter? She could see Elida taking any opportunity to advance; she had propositioned Natalie, either tauntingly enuinely, simply to smooth over their retionship. So she doubted the woman would have many problems with casual sex for the sake ress, should it e to that.

  Vaa though? She definitely seemed more reserved. Natalie might have noticed a few stolen gnces, but she was also walking around in slutty armor, and she expected even straight girls would send some curious looks her way. So Natalie was unsure where Vaa stood both on orientation and promiscuity. She expected Vaa wouldn't love the City, whatever was waiting there.

  It took several hours before they were brushing up oskirts, and the first whole, undecayed buildings came into sight. The City, for whatever reason, had not suffered aerious effects from the cataclysm that had struck the rest of Elysium; it seemed as if it had been dropped into the ruins after the fact, with its simir architecture yet pristine dition.

  More surprising thay was the young woman they bumped into.

  Natalie kept her on at the ready, wary of a trap, but when she called out and the woman turned and raised her own on, she retty sure they'd simply found another delver.

  "Oh," the girl said. "Oh, uh, hi there. Are you two newers? No, that's silly, look at your armor, of course you aren't."

  Natalie lowered her on—though certainly kept it in hand—as she approached the woman. She digested the opening words.

  "Newers?" she asked. "To what? This City? We're new, yes. What about my armor?"

  Though Natalie already had an inkling of an idea of what she'd meant.

  "You are new?" the unknown girl asked. She was tall-ish firl, an inch or two shorter than Natalie, with wide shoulders and heavy metal armor: probably a tank. Long bck hair was tied in a ponytail, and she had dark green eyes. "Huh, I just assumed …" she gestured at Natalie's armor and coughed. "Well, never mind. You'll find out soon enough. Why is it just two of you?"

  "The dungeon split us up," Natalie said. "Where's the rest of your team?"

  "Iy," she said. "It's safe, as long as you stay within its borders. I oking around to see what I could find. Apparently some of the others have found stashes of Tokens and whatnot. Thought I'd try my hand, while everyone else was resting." She shrugged.

  "Others," Vaa said. "How many?"

  There was something about the way the girl hrasing it that made Natalie suspicious.

  "You might not believe me," she replied. "But there's hundreds of us." Jokingly, she said, "A whole city's worth, you could call it."

  At Natalie and Vaa's astounded expressions, she coughed.

  "And that's just the half of it," the girl mumbled. "You're in for a ride, let me tell you. I guess I show you around, if you want. It's a lot to take in, your first time here, and someone else did the same for me. Time to return the favor, I guess."