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This time, Kurai allowed me to walk on my own while he held my hand and carefully guided me over every obstacle in our way, mindful of my “fragile” bones.

I felt well, everything considered. Through his tendrils, the fae magic gave me the energy to stay awake and function when I really should be too weak to move from starvation by now.

As we turned around the bend in the passage, Kurai gripped my hand tighter. With his other hand, he slid one of his daggers out of its sheath.

Alarm pierced through my chest. “What is it?”

A large shape glistened with gold, reflecting the glow of the walls in the semi-darkness of the tunnel. The size of a large dog, it had the shape of a scorpion lying to the ground.

“It’s not alive,” Kurai exhaled with visible relief.

The scorpion must’ve been dead for a long time as only the black shell of its exoskeleton still remained. The shell looked almost translucent, with the legs gathered under it and the mandibles still in place.

“It's huge. Is it even real?” I wondered.

“It’s normal size for a scorpion,” he said. “Babies would be smaller. But this was a fully grown one.”

The scorpion’s tail arched over its body. The end of it, shaped like an arrow, pierced through the creature's back and was left deeply embedded in it.

“I thought scorpions didn’t sting themselves,” I said in a subdued voice.

“These ones do. They live in large colonies. To protect their home from an enemy, they would sacrifice themselves.”

He pointed at another skeleton that I hadn’t noticed before because unlike the scorpion, it was black and didn’t glow. Its long, pale spine looped on the floor around the scorpion. Its flat head was inserted through the shell of the scorpion’s skeleton deep into its chest.

“What happened here?”

“It looks like the sand centipede attacked the scorpion,” Kurai explained.

“Normally, a scorpion would present a formidable enemy to a sand centipede. But the scorpion must’ve been in a vulnerable position this time.

Maybe it had its young with it. Or maybe it tried to protect its colony from being discovered by the sand centipede and its ilk.

Either way, it injected itself with poison on purpose.

See?” He pointed at the arrow of the tail buried in the golden shell.

“It did it just when the centipede bit into it, so the poison killed them both.”

I stared at the skeletons of the mortal enemies forever united in death.

“It’s a brutal world you live in, Kurai.”

“It is,” he agreed. “Life is ruthless in Alveari Kingdom, both on the surface and underground.”

“I never knew scorpions were this selfless. This one killed itself to protect its family.”

“The scorpion is just an animal driven by instinct. But for people, sacrificing one’s life for the greater good is the most noble act.”

“Is that why you rebelled against the queen? For the greater good?”

He glanced at me, then quickly looked away.

I didn’t mean to pry. But I wished I knew what those treason charges against him were all about, if only to understand him better.

“Whatever it is, Kurai,” I spoke when he didn’t answer, “I just want you to know that I far prefer having you alive to any greater good out there. Besides, a living man can continue to work towards a greater good, right? A dead one isn’t of much use to anyone anymore.”

He squinted at me, shaking his head .

“The way you look at things amazes me, Ciana. Becoming a martyr is the highest honor and the greatest legacy a Joy Guardian can aspire to.”

“Alright, I’m not arguing with that.” I shrugged. “All I’m saying is that I can’t hold a dead man’s hand whenever I want.” I squeezed his hand tightly. “Or kiss him whenever I feel like it.”

I tugged on his arm, making him lean down to me, then placed a quick kiss on his lips, stunning him into silence.

“What I mean is that maybe the greater good is really a whole bunch of little things like this,” I said. “Because they are what really matters at the end of the day, aren’t they?”

KURAI

Ciana’s words about “little things” wouldn’t leave my mind as we continued to walk through the underground tunnels.

I tried to think of all the little things that mattered to me, mindful of every moment spent at her side.

I couldn’t identify them all easily before because the little pleasures were just as unattainable to me as the big ones.

But with my tendrils connected to her now, I could see the world through her senses.

She was tired and sore. Hunger clawed at her insides, demanding food we didn’t have. But Ciana’s emotions came from a cornucopia of smaller sensations that she constantly collected along the way.

The warm glow of comfort must be coming from her hand resting in mine.

The flutter of curiosity shimmered through as she slid a finger along a glowing vein in the dark stone of the wall to our right.

And then…there was that pulsing light of attraction—intriguing and tantalizing.

It sparked brighter every time she cast a glance my way.

All the little, trivial things that I’d been taught to ignore and forsake for my one true purpose were incredibly meaningful to her. She lived for right now, mindful of every moment of her twenty-two years.

Whereas I had spent a century in this world, with all my moments blended into each other in pursuit of one goal. I had skills. I’d gathered knowledge. But my entire life so far felt like a preparation for something big that would never come.