SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 742: The Road Back

Orrin’s first look went to Leon’s injured side when he emerged. Tobin stood beside her at the foot of the annex stair.

Seraphine had kept the damaged inner court closed. Before allowing anyone back, Leon inspected it with the women, removed the remaining contaminated debris, and let the disturbed elemental currents settle. Only then did he withdraw his illusion.

"You look like you lost," Orrin said, noticing the raw line across his palm.

"I didn’t," Leon said.

"I know you didn’t. I’m saying that’s what it cost." She let out a breath. "I’ve got twenty people who’d be dead if that floor had come into the arcade. Thank you."

"They listened when you told them to move," Leon replied. "That gave the women room to protect them."

Tobin was quieter. He kept looking toward the place where Mardoc had fallen, then away.

"The Graywater villages should know he died," Tobin said. "He wasn’t a kind man, but he was theirs. The Hall can send word." His eyes returned to Leon. "We’ll report what we witnessed. We won’t invent the parts we couldn’t see."

"Thank you," Leon said. "Without your route and the arcade, people would have died on that floor."

Tobin colored a little and looked down at his satchel.

The Hall retained its time at the annex; Orrin’s company kept the eastern pools. Leon kept the crystal, his harvest, and Mardoc’s possessions.

"Finish your copying," Leon told Tobin. "I owe you three days."

"You’ve secured our claim," Tobin replied. "I can hold it now. You don’t need to stay for us."

On his way up the annex stair, Tobin stopped beside the rough inscription by the second door.

Below them, the column of light continued feeding the pools. The sanctuary would still be here for the Hall and the settlements after the visitors went home.

"People will ask about this," Tobin said, touching the rough lettering. "And about you."

"Tell them you read us the calendar," Leon replied. "That was useful."

Tobin smiled faintly. "You don’t like the other interpretation."

"Would you?"

"When I was younger, perhaps." Tobin glanced down into the hollow. "I used to think finding the person in the verse would settle everything. Our water disputes, poor harvests, all of it. My teacher asked what we’d do if he didn’t come."

Leon could guess how that conversation had ended.

"It probably wasn’t written for any of the boys claiming it," Tobin said.

"It wasn’t me either," said Leon.

Tobin looked at him a moment longer, and didn’t argue.

Leon looked back at the inscription once before following the others. He would take the crystal and the route home. The prophecy could remain on its wall.

The sign came the next morning.

Tobin came down from the annex at a run and took them back to the calendar panel. The groove along its bottom edge, which Leon had taken for decoration, had begun filling.

A thin line of water moved slowly from one end.

"The Hall’s old copy describes a counting channel," Tobin said. "Water rising in it before the doors wake. We thought it was a figure of speech." He studied the filling groove. "This agrees with the calendar."

Leon looked at the slow line of water and felt something in his chest loosen.

They left that afternoon, the sixth day since first steam. Orrin walked them to the broken gateway and shook Leon’s hand.

"If the doors between our worlds ever run both ways," she said, "come and find me. I’ll owe you a drink."

"I’ll hold you to that."

Tobin bowed to each of the women in turn, and then to Leon, the low slow bow he had given him on the Steps.

Leon took the descent carefully. Two days would bring them back to Asterbank, then another day along the direct path to the spring. They still had time to meet the others before the predicted reopening.

He accepted Loriel’s hand over the widest gap. On the level path, Seraphine stayed beside him although he no longer needed help.

They rested before dark. For once, nobody spread diagrams beside the fire. Vyra passed him his supper, and he ate it while the women argued mildly over which route had fewer steep climbs. He was happy to leave that decision to them.

Leon’s plaque woke on the second ridge above the spring, half a day out.

It gave a single warm pulse against his chest, and then Bai Heng’s voice came through it, slightly breathless. "Senior Brother? Senior Brother, is that you?"

"It’s me," Leon said. "All five of us. We’re half a day out."

"Thank the heavens," said Bai Heng.

"I need you to relay a message to Tian," Leon said. He read the copied calendar aloud, then described the counting channel. "Today is the ninth day from first steam. The doors are predicted to open on the thirteenth and stay open for twelve days."

"And tell her this is a forecast," Leon said. "It’s held so far. I want her people watching the entrance for any change, starting today."

"I’ll tell her." Bai Heng’s voice had gone careful. "Senior Brother. Are you hurt?"

"I was," Leon said. "Loriel has treated me. I’m well enough to travel."

"I’ll have a place ready for you," Bai Heng replied.

"Thank you." Leon passed on the remaining observations before they continued down the ridge.

They reached the spring at dusk on the ninth day since departure, comfortably within the twelve days Leon had promised.

Bai Heng met them at the edge of the camp. He looked Leon over, the stiff left side and the pink line on his palm, and didn’t ask anything else. He just put a cup of hot tea in his good hand.

The camp had made good use of their absence. Harvests were sealed and sorted, and Bai Heng had refined three crates of mineral fuel using the translated preparation notes. The gatherers had kept the spring working without exhausting its beds.

A young gatherer named Mei Lan, who had been in the field party that came through the storm, heard the word doors and sat down right where she was and cried. She was embarrassed afterward. Nobody teased her about it.

Leon gave Bai Heng two boxes of the plainer fire ore from the Steps before he even unpacked.

"For your next batch," he said.

Bai Heng opened the first box and stared into it. "This is good," he said. "This is very good." He looked up. "This is going to make a much better fuel than what I’ve had."

"There’s more in our allocation," Leon said. "We can discuss the next batch once everyone knows about the exit."

That night, after the camp was asleep, Leon walked out alone along the western path past the last of the guards.

His clone was waiting in the dark at the second bend.

He had spent the past two days walking that body back from the western hills, where it had been mapping streams. Both sets of eyes served the same mind; he had timed their arrival together without sending a single message.

They didn’t speak. There was nothing one could tell the other.

He opened a small door into his world, and the clone stepped through it, and the door closed, and Leon walked back to camp alone.

Tian’s acknowledgment had arrived while he was out. Bai Heng handed him the plaque, and Leon listened to her brief account of the entrance clearing. The marker remained where they had left it. There was still no gate.

He checked the date on the copied calendar once more. Four days to find out whether its promise extended all the way home.