Luna and Jake ended up seated across from the suit of armor at the long wooden table, the setting so absurd it would have been funny if Jake's head was not pounding and his nose was not still bleeding. He pressed a folded hand towel to his face, breathing slowly through his mouth while the armored figure sat with its back straight, gauntleted hands resting neatly on its knees.
"So," Luna said, leaning back in her chair, tone casual in the way only someone dangerously competent could manage, "that's the short version of this world. The Empire, the beyonders, the magic tech, the whole mess. You understand?"
The helmet dipped once. Clean. Precise.
"Good," Luna continued. "Then let's talk about you. Your gift is… well, it's pretty obvious once you think about it. It doesn't look flashy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Trust me. Mine didn't make sense either. We didn't even figure it out until I'd been here a full month."
Jake groaned softly and shifted the towel, trying to stop another nosebleed.
'Obvious, she says. That's easy when your ability is a straight-up cheat'
Luna's gift had turned out to be accelerated learning. Not just fast, but unnaturally fast. Muscle memory, languages, combat forms, social nuance. She absorbed it all like a sponge. It was why she wielded a sword now instead of a spear, why Lucas had quietly stopped correcting her after the first few weeks, why merchants always walked away from deals feeling like they had lost something without knowing what.
Jake had once joked that she was speedrunning the world.
He was only half joking.
Luna stood and walked over to the armored figure. Before Jake could even register what she was doing, she reached up and lifted the helmet clean off.
"LUNA YOU CRAZY BASTARD," Jake shouted, panic cutting straight through the headache. "DID YOU JUST KILL SOMEONE?"
The armor did not fall. It did not slump. It simply stood there, headless, steady as ever.
Luna rolled her eyes. "Relax, dumbass. There's an Aetherium crystal where his heart should be. No organs. No blood. No brain to scramble. As long as that crystal stays intact, he's fine."
"Oh."
Jake slowly lowered the towel. "My bad."
The implications hit him a second later.
"So… that means," he muttered, "he can lose limbs, get crushed, stabbed, burned…"
"Yep," Luna said cheerfully. "Nigh immortal construct. Pretty solid deal."
Jake leaned back in his chair, staring at the still-standing armor.
So Luna gets knowledge mastery. This guy gets functional immortality. And I get emotional stability.
That was just unfair.
"Hey, Luna," Jake said after a moment, standing carefully. "I'm gonna go lie down. My head feels like it's being split with a chisel."
"For sure," she replied. "Don't sleep too hard. Lunch should be ready soon."
"I'll try."
Jake climbed the stairs slowly, every step echoing faintly in his skull. He reached his door, marked with the carved letter J, and pushed it open.
Pain detonated.
It was not just physical. It was deeper, ripping through him like something inside his chest had been grabbed and twisted apart. He collapsed to the floor, screaming, fingers clawing uselessly at the wood.
His vision tunneled. The world fractured.
Luna's voice reached him from somewhere far away, screaming his name, but it felt muffled, distorted.
I'm going to die.
The thought barely formed before darkness swallowed him whole.
When Jake woke, it was not to pain.
It was to warmth.
Not warmth against his skin, but something gentler, wrapping around his thoughts, his memories, his sense of self. Like being held from the inside. It was familiar now, disturbingly so.
"This makes twice," he murmured.
The first time had been five months ago, when the sickness had begun. The headaches. The nosebleeds. The sudden waves of exhaustion. No pattern. No warning. The first episode had knocked him unconscious just like this.
'Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me?'
He sat up slowly and realized he was not in his room. White curtains. Stone walls. The faint scent of antiseptic herbs.
The infirmary.
As his eyes adjusted, he spotted Luna slumped in a chair nearby, arms crossed, head tipped forward in sleep. Exhaustion clung to her posture.
Jake smiled despite everything.
She stayed.
He stood quietly and tapped her shoulder. "Luna. Wake up."
She mumbled, half-asleep. "Just… five more minutes."
He chuckled softly and left her be. Taking a blanket from the nearby bed, he draped it gently over her shoulders before stepping out.
Upstairs, the air was warm and rich with the smell of baked sweets. Rowan was humming to himself at the table. Jake dropped onto the sofa, letting the cushion catch him.
"So," he muttered to himself, "a couple hours out, I guess."
A plate shattered against the floor.
Jake looked up.
Rowan stood frozen, eyes wide, face pale beneath his beard.
"What?" Jake asked, suddenly uneasy. "What's wrong?"
Rowan's voice was hoarse. "What do you mean, what's wrong?"
"You passed out three days ago."