Turning his head, Rowan said in a subdued tone: “I’m serious. I wanted to ask you about your first Challenge too. You went with a team that consisted of some Clan members. What was it like? How were you able to work with them without losing it? What can I expect from them if I ended up in a similar situation?”

Talia stared at him with her sharp grey eyes, their father’s eyes, for a while and sighed “Let’s go outside and wait for mom.”

They walked out of the infirmary and went outside near the parking zone, where there were some trees planted and were spaced evenly. Leaning against one, his big sister took out a cube shaped device and activated it. Instantly, a small area around them was covered in a translucent dome. ‘A dome of silence. Nice.’

 After tapping something on her AR terminal, Talia turned her head towards him and mused “Now we won’t have any outside ears. Well, where should I start? Yes, if you somehow ended up having to deal with any of the Clan members, think of them as tools and nothing more. Every tool has its own strengths and weaknesses.They are extremely prideful and ‘honor’ bound. Oh and they can’t seem to refuse any single combat challenge. I gotta warn you though. No matter how much you and I hate them, there is no denying their strength and competence. They were trained from birth to be warriors after all. Still, there is always some kind of tension between different clan members. You can try using that against them too.”

Shrugging, she continued “That’s pretty much all the general info about them I can give. If I knew what Clan you would end up with, then I could provide more specific details.”

 “Well, there are some speculations which Clan members will join the upcoming expedition. Check the family terminal later, I’ll mail the details there.”

“Now…” She gave him a pointed look “Why do you want to start your next challenge so soon? Do you somehow have a death wish? You almost made mom become hollow after your sudden Challenge. Can you even join the upcoming expedition since you already completed your first assimilation?”

Listening to her barrage of questions, Rowan winced. “Sheesh, calm down. I have a very good reason for what I said. No, I do not have a death wish. I don’t want to worry mom further too. About my first assimilation, it’s not complete. I did not absorb a lot of essence from the creatures I faced there, since I did not face that many. Only a single Brood Mother, which I did not kill it myself either. After the challenge, I was warned by some…I don’t know, ‘entity’? That I should continue my challenge as soon as possible or I might die in a horrible way and hurt those around me too. So, yeah. That’s about it.”

Talia stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds and finally spoke “You cannot be serious…A Brood Mother?! Really?!”

Chuckling, Rowan replied “Yeah, I had the same reaction too when I saw it.”

Shaking her head, she whispered “It’s a miracle you're still alive. Well, anyway, about the ‘entity’ you spoke of…that sounds like you just had a very bad dream and imagined it? How can you be sure what it said was true?”

Rowan had indeed thought about that possibility but after checking his mindscape Or Soulscape —as the voice called it which was weird because he had learned that the space within a Blessed was called the mindscape— he found that it was unstable and the space seemed ready to explode. He shook his head “I already checked it. It’s true. My body is like a ticking time bomb now. I have to venture into the Beyond as soon as possible. Oh and you have to help me convince mom. I’m gonna tell her about it soon.”

Sighing, Talia looked towards the compound ahead “What is up with our family…are we cursed or something?”

Turning towards him, she spoke in a serious tone “I’ll assume that you are not actually suicidal and what you said is true. I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna miss the new volume release of that childish novel you're so obsessed with after all. But you should not tell mom about it too soon. Spend as much time as possible with her before you stress her out again.”

Rowan was positively offended. “Hey! It’s not childish! It’s art!”

Rolling her eyes, she continued: “Yeah yeah. As for your next challenge…I’ll try to find some good weapons that you can bring with you. Though that’s probably gonna leave a dent in my account…”

Rowan’s eyes went a bit wide. “Really? You’d do that for me? Wow! Thank you big sis!”

Talia stared at him strangely. “What the hell are you on about? You're gonna pay me back after you return. With interest. So make sure you find valuable materials or some artifacts during your journey that you can sell.”

All his feelings of gratitude went away in an instant. “Wow. And here I thought you were actually being nice for once, with me about to head back to that hell and all.”

“Being nice, doesn’t put food on the table, little brother.”  

Shaking his head, he looked away. “You must be so fun at social gatherings.”

She replied in an amused tone “At least I get invited to gatherings. What about you? Do you even have friends?”

Rowan jerked his head in her direction. “Y-You…How dare…How could you say that to your own brother!”

Talia chuckled “It’s exactly because of that. I don’t want my own brother to be pathetic. Of all the books you read, you couldn’t even find a single one on how to make friends? Maybe I should buy you one?”

Rowan felt his face burning. “Fine! If that’s how you wanna play then just you wait! I’ll have more friends than you ever will when I return!”

“Wanna bet?”

“If you're prepared to lose”

“Sure. If you win then I’ll talk to one of the Clan Archive Keepers to lend one of their exclusive collections or maybe see even one of their paintings. If you lose though, you have to give up half your collection.”

Rowan would rather fight a Brood Mother than give up even a single one of his collection but he didn’t have to since he wasn’t planning on losing anyway. And seeing one of the art collections any Great Clans possessed did not sound so bad. 

“Bet”

She smiled sinisterly “Good. Now, let’s go. Mom is waiting for us.”