Once night fell, Winter Russel finally had enough of the swirling figures on the papers on his desk and called it a night. But as he stood in front of the open elevator doors, his son's words rang through his head.
'Don't use the elevator.'
He had no idea why Summer/Dig had said something like that. But he had looked dead serious when he said it.
Winter put his hand on his chest over his heart. He was getting up there. He moved it a little lower to his stomach.
He was still healthy, but maybe he wasn't exercising enough?
'Don't tell me…Is he worried about my health?'
Winter felt warmth spread from deep within and scurried down the stairs with a smile on his lips.
Once morning came, he naturally took the stairs again. He leisurely looked out over the city before continuing where he left off last night.
Eventually, the elevator doors dinged open.
"'Huh? Where's Arker?'" Luisa and Winter asked each other at the same time.
Usually, he was the first to show up at Winter's office in the mornings to bring breakfast and a report on what happened during the night.
Since she was the subordinate, Luisa answered first.
"He entered the elevator last I saw him."
"Well, he hasn't popped up here. Did he stop at another floor for some reason?"
"To do what? It has been almost an hour since he showed up downstairs."
"I'm sure it's nothing, but check the footage." It would be simpler and easier than trying to look for Arker in the building or figure out what he was up to. But it shouldn't be anything noteworthy, so Winter wasn't worried and continued working while Luisa carried out his request.
It didn't take long for her to come rushing back in.
"He's gone!" After taking a breath, she hurriedly told Winter what had been on the camera.
Arker had stepped into the elevator, but as soon as it started ascending, the screen flickered, and Arker was no longer in it. There were no signs or traces of where he had disappeared to.
Winter was silent for a while before finally giving his order.
"Bring my son here."
Luisa wasn't sure what Dig had to do with it, but she obeyed anyway.
***
Dig was not surprised to find Luisa banging on his door. The only thing he wondered was why it was later than it had been last time. Even if he had told his father not to use the elevator, Dig didn't have high expectations that the bossy man would listen to him.
More importantly, this time, she was much more reluctant to tell him what was going on. She just said that it was urgent and that he needed to come to the office since his father had asked for him.
"Where's Arker?" Dig asked when they were seated in the car and on the move.
Luisa stiffened for a second but didn't answer. It confirmed Dig's suspicion.
His father had listened to him and taken the stairs instead. The next person to use the elevator ended up being Arker. That meant Arker was currently in the Underbelly.
Now, what did that have to do with Dig? Was Winter worried about him? Probably, but that wasn't why he had told Luisa to bring him to the office.
"Why did you tell me not to use the elevator?" Winter asked the moment Dig set foot in his office.
"..." Dig didn't say anything immediately. He had the whole car ride to think about the answer to that question, but he hadn't come up with anything. He could be honest, he could lie, or he could do something in between.
"I got a bad feeling from it." He settled on something in between. It wasn't a lie. If he looked at what had happened the last couple of times as prophetic dreams, he could interpret them as manifestations of bad feelings.
If he looked at what was happening like a death-bound regression event, his experience with the elevator gave him a bad feeling about it, regardless. Just the memory of the ride to the Underbelly made him queasy.
Winter squinted and looked at him while resting his chin on his interlaced fingers.
"Is that all you have to say?" He eventually asked.
"...If it's related to Arker's absence, I can tell you that it didn't feel mortally dangerous, just…dangerous."
Winter didn't say anything. He just looked at Dig, trying to understand what was going through his son's mind. Like usual, he did not understand much. So, he moved on.
"Well, until Arker returns, if he does, I want you to stay here. Your room is always prepared, and if you have anything in the apartment, you can ask Luisa to get it."
"I don't want to."
"It's non-negotiable," Winter said with a voice like iron. He was not letting Dig out of the building.
Dig sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Fine."
"Just until I get a grip on things," Winter added, but Dig had already turned around and stopped listening.
Luisa stayed behind a couple of minutes after Dig left so that Winter could order her not to let Dig out of the building.
***
After a few hours, Dig was bored out of his mind. He had already read all the books that seemed the slightest bit interesting in the building, there was no one to play board games with, and he wasn't sure what to do with his Skill other than feed candy wrappers to it.
It seemed the stony mist wasn't just good for defense. It broke down whatever came in contact with it and made more stony mist.
Logically, that shouldn't happen to his body, but maybe it did, and that's why he died when listening to Mogdo Dal.
'I'm still suspicious, though.' Still thinking about Mogdo Dal's actions in the previous life/dream, Dig headed to the ground floor, where Luisa was diligently guarding the entrance.
"I'm under strict orders not to let you outside, Dig." She said without looking up from her book as soon as Dig stepped foot on the floor.
"Yeah, I know. That's not why I'm here. I wanted to hear what you know about Mogdo Dal."
"Team Four's captain? Why? Did you meet him? He hasn't been here today, has he?"
"Uh, no. I was just curious and bored. Mostly bored." Dig put his hands on Luisa's desk and rested his weight.
Luisa closed her book and looked up at him. She tilted her head slightly in acknowledgment. She could understand that.
"Well, there's not much to say. He's taciturn, strong, and a little weird. But I chalk most of it up to the fact that he's old, old enough to have lived through the Descent of Chaos."
"Didn't my father also live through it?" Dig asked, slightly confused.
"Well, yes, but some places had it worse than others, I guess is the short explanation. Before Chaos, humanity had a population of a staggering ten billion. Compared to the current tens of millions…Yeah, a lot of people died. And since some places had more of that than others…
"From what I've heard, Mogdo Dal came from one of those places. The year following the Descent, Mogdo Dal's life was worse than Hell. We should consider ourselves lucky that he's still a decent human being, especially since he's at the Liberation stage."
"I see."
'I guess her opinion of him isn't entirely reliable. The Mogdo Dal I met was not taciturn.'
"I'm out of candy, do you mind if I run to the store for a minute and buy some?" He asked, suddenly changing the topic with the subtlety of an elephant in an antiques shop.
"I'll get it for you."
"Do you know which one I like?"
"Just tell me."
"Pink rainbow burst. Sugar Deluxe. Limited Edition Heavenly Flower Version. White/Red Ultra Mix."
"You know what. As long as you're back in ten minutes, I'm sure it'll be fine."