Chapter 90: Welcome Home

After an extensive shopping spree for everyone at home, and getting almost nothing for himself until Captain Dunn insisted he at least get a nice change of clothes, Theo finally returned from the Tower.

When he was ready to leave, all he had to do was mentally conceive of returning, and a new pop-up appeared before his eyes.

[Are you sure you want to exit this Tower Floor?]

’Yes.’

With that, a white door appeared right in front of him. He finished up at the store, bade Captain Dunn farewell, then stepped through it.

’It’s a pity I wasn’t able to see the old man, but I guess we will see sometime later.’

Theo walked through the door and immediately came out of the same door he had entered through in the Tower chamber. He walked out of the passageway and found two officers sitting at the entrance.

’They’re different people?’

One was a woman and the other was an older man. The moment they saw him, both of them staggered back in their seats, while the man blinked at him several times.

"You... you... you became a Climber? You passed the Trial?! What about the others?"

Theo answered them nonchalantly.

"They failed. They’re dead."

The man and woman lowered their heads, their expressions turning somber, and for a second neither of them said anything.

"I shall contact the association, sir! Congratulations, sir!"

The woman shouted as she immediately reached for her phone and began dialing. The man kept staring at Theo, his eyes carrying something close to praise, hope, and respect.

Theo turned back toward him.

"How many days was I in there?"

The man immediately went through the records on the computer screen, checking the latest group of people who had entered a Tower Trial.

"You entered almost two days ago. Tonight will make it a full two days."

Theo mentally logged it.

’And I spent almost four days in the trial... I guess two days in the Tower counts for one outside here. I can’t be too sure yet, but I’ll see. Right now, I can’t wait to see my babes.’

Theo excitedly strolled out of the building.

The Tower entrance was a largely open space, surrounded by numerous stores. Most of them were operated by different agencies.

They sold weapons and items, bought scavenged monster parts, and dealt in all sorts of other things brought out of the Tower.

As Theo walked out of the building, a man in a black suit and black glasses adjusted his glasses and watched him from behind.

[Genesis Eyes has detected an appraisal]

[Do you want to reveal information?]

’No.’

[Information Blocked]

[Genesis Eyes has detected forced appraisal]

[Forced Appraisal has been force blocked]

[Target has taken soul damage]

Theo simply continued walking, acting as though he had seen nothing.

Behind him, the man who had tried to use an appraisal skill on him doubled over. He yanked off his glasses and frantically rubbed his eyes.

"Stanley! Stanley! Are you there?! Did you get any information on him?"

His communicator kept ringing.

Theo didn’t wait to see how the call went. With bags in both hands, he crossed the plaza toward the cab stand without looking back, leaving the man behind him to explain whatever had just happened to the person on the other end of the communicator.

The ride out of Yellemite took longer than the ride in ever had. Every traffic light seemed determined to catch him.

At the western checkpoint, the guard leaned down to the window, took one look at Theo’s face, and waved the cab through without asking for anything at all.

Forty minutes past the checkpoint, the trees opened up.

The lake was there, flat and silver beneath the evening sky, and beyond it sat the house.

[Protector’s Domain (A) has been activated]

Theo was smiling before the cab even stopped.

He paid the driver, gathered up every bag he could carry in one trip because he refused to make two, and walked up the porch steps over the water.

Estea was in the front room, her wheelchair angled toward the door like she’d been waiting there long enough to become annoyed about it.

Her eyes went straight to the bags before they went to him.

"You’re late."

"I brought you something."

"I don’t want it."

Theo set the bags down within reach of her chair anyway and crouched in front of her. She let him take her hand, which was about as close to welcome home as he was ever going to get from her.

"You look like hell..."

She turned her wheelchair away.

"Did you win?"

"I’m alive."

"That’s not what I asked."

"I won."

Estea’s mouth twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smile. She looked away first, out the window at the lake, as though the conversation had never happened.

Sesan came down the hall at a run.

She didn’t slow down for the doorway or for him. She hit him somewhere around the middle and held on, both arms locked around him, her face pressed into his chest.

Theo dropped the last bag to catch her properly.

She didn’t say anything. She never did.

But her shoulders shook in small, rapid movements, and when she finally tipped her head back to look up at him, her eyes were red, her cheeks wet, and she was smiling anyway.

Theo’s eyes grew warm as he looked down at her.

"I’m here."

Odette was in the kitchen when he came through, her grey coat still on, needles moving steadily in her hands, while a pot of something simmered on the stove that hadn’t been there when he left.

"Two days," she said without looking up. "You had the Captain worried."

"I had Sesan’s seizure schedule memorized before I left. Did it hold?"

"It held."

She glanced at him then, taking in the bags, the state of his clothes, and whatever else her eyes could price out in a second.

"Go see your wife. I’ll heat something up for when you’re done."

Uthed came in with an axe over his shoulder. As soon as he stepped inside, he stopped and blinked, then smiled.

"Mr. Theo. You’re back!"

He studied Theo for a moment.

"Oh? You are standing a bit differently."

"Good differently?"

"We will see."

He paused briefly, his expression settling.

"I am glad you are home."

The stairs to the sublevel were cool all the way down, and the air changed before the door did.

Nischov was at the monitors when Theo came in and gave him the same report he always gave, unchanged, careful, no worse.

Thall hadn’t moved.

She never did.

Her hands were cold when Theo took them, and her breathing was shallow and even. The line on the monitor climbed and fell in its slow green rhythm, the same as it had the day he left.

He sat down beside her as he always did and didn’t let go of her hand.

He told her about the vault, the daggers carved out of violet dark, the shield that kept disappearing, and the thing he’d bought that Captain Dunn had told him was scrap.

"I got you something too," he said.

"You’re going to have to wake up to see it, though. That’s the deal."

The monitor kept its rhythm, nothing had changed.

And Theo stayed anyway.