The Lady of Fate smiled at John as she waved a hand. The metal room they stood in was erased, giving way to the infinite white vista John had seen the last time he visited.

Now, the only thing inside it was the two of them. He didn’t even see a door like last time.

“Of course I’ll help you, John. After that, you’re more than deserving. But I’m curious about what happened inside the portal. Did you just get out?”

John exhaled slowly, preparing to open the sheer bandage over his still-bleeding wound. He could feel his heartbeat quicken merely by thinking of looking back.

“We… yeah, I just got out. The planet collapsed, and a group of us were sent flying through the portal by… someone very powerful.”

She looked at him worriedly for a moment before raising her hands and conjuring a couple of chairs from the water. They looked like solid water, much like the piano she had been playing on during his last visit.

“Let’s sit down. I feel like you’ve had a rough time of it,” she said caringly while sitting in one of the chairs. “But what about Serah? Was she part of your group?”

John felt his jaw clench at her question, trying to control himself. He had half a mind to yell at her, accusing her of manipulating everything that happened to him during the journey. But beyond the fantastical things that happened to him, he had no proof.

He sat down in the other chair, sensing a cooling and soft sensation embrace him. It was surprisingly comfortable and even a bit sobering.

“Well… Serah was taken away by that powerful being. I couldn’t…” He cleared his throat, trying to mask the emotions in his voice. “I was too weak to stop it.”

“Taken away? To where? And are you thinking of the tyrant when you say powerful being?”

John shook his head and sighed. “That’s what I was hoping you’d help me with, actually. I need to know where to look for her. But I don’t have any idea where to even start… And no, it wasn’t a tyrant. She was way stronger.”

The Lady stared at him with furrowed brows. “... Well, if the planet collapsed, I can’t dismiss your claims of her power.” She leaned back in her chair, pondering. “So Serah’s fate is to be taken away from Earth? That’s unexpected.”

“No, actually… When she was taken, the… being… it pulled the golden string from her and cut it, making it fade to ashes. I don’t think her fate exists anymore.”

“Ahhh! That can be done?!”

John shrugged, looking down at his hands. “Apparently. But why it happened, or why she… I don’t know any motives.”

Every time his thoughts returned to Rain, something stopped him from thinking too much about it, like his brain was protecting him from his emotions. It probably wasn’t healthy, but he needed it to get through the rest of the day.

“But then… there’s no way for me to know where she went, John. Without a fate, she would be invisible to my powers. Even if we are…” She seemed to forget herself momentarily and quickly brushed over her words. “Who is this being you keep referring to? It seems to be a sore subject.”

“Everything happened less than an hour ago, so I think I’m still in shock. I can’t think about it without…” He shook his head, letting his eyes drift to the side. “We… No, I can’t do it.”

She stared tenderly at him and nodded. “I understand, I’ll stop asking about that… Did you learn anything else of significant importance?” she asked, changing the subject for his sake.

John released a breath and felt himself relaxing before thinking through what else he had learned. “Right, technology is a hindrance for essence. For some reason.”

“... What do you mean?”

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“Uhh, I learned about a different civilization while I was gone. They all died after the portals started appearing on their planet, and they discovered that their advanced technology hindered them from breaking through. They never had a single breaker.”

The Lady seemed to ponder that information deeply, changing expressions and nodding quietly. “Is that why we need the simulations? Because we have too much technology? I had thought about this earlier, wondering how the beasts break through when they don’t have the simulations…”

John realized that the Lady had thought a lot about essence in the past through experiments and deeper pondering. But it was little wonder. After all, it was all that kept humanity from extinction.

“My Lady, could you–”

“You can just call me Rania, John,” she told him, letting the rules of superiority and seniority fall to the side.

She was being surprisingly cordial, he thought, putting their chairs on equal grounds and acting like they were almost equals. It had felt quite different during his first visit, but that might have been mostly in his head.

“... Rania, could you tell me how much you influenced my journey inside the portal? I feel confident that no one had a more eventful time in that portal than me, and I can’t help but feel like you had a hand in that.”

She smiled a knowing smile at him, leaning forward in her chair. “Not at all! As I said before you left, your string was becoming more and more challenging to play. And on the day you entered the portal, none of the strings of your group were playable anymore. Later, I figured out that it happened at the same time that the planet obtained a ruler, so I assumed it had powers greater than my own. At least in that world.”

John thought back, finding it hard to believe. He was sure something had tampered with his fate, even if it wasn’t Rania.

‘And, of course, there’s exactly one potential candidate. But I thought her essence was sealed? Did she do something before we met, when the forest fell? Or was it part of her guiding power…?’

Shaking the thoughts away, John chose to focus on current matters instead. If humanity was in trouble, he had to know what was causing it. “Could you tell me what the emergency is now?”

Now it was Rania’s turn to take a deep breath. “How much do you know about the current situation of our defenses?”

John thought back to the briefings they had received before traveling to the portal, but there had been very few specifics. At least that he remembered.

“I think all weavers have portals they’re responsible for guarding to prevent beasts from spilling through. Humanity has been shrunk to less than twenty percent of what it was at its peak, now all living in major fortified cities. The planet is overrun by beasts, but I don’t know how strong they are or what their numbers are.”

She nodded. “That’s pretty accurate. Us weavers have been spread around to major cities or population centers in the world, and we all have portals to guard. Mine is on the weaker side, but now I guess I no longer have one…” She made a slightly sour face, as if worrying that she might have to move.

“Well, yes, we all guard portals, but some prefer to enter them to eradicate the threats within. The problem, though, is that there are many portals we have never discovered. And currently, over twenty tyrants are roaming the planet.”

A rush of chills spread down John’s back hearing that. He had never imagined they would be so outnumbered on their own planet. “That many?! But how are we surviving?”

“They all kept to themselves most of the time. And when they didn’t, two weavers would eventually show up to fight them back, hopefully killing them. Tyrants are smart, so they know what happens if they attack us. But now…”

She waved at the water, conjuring a sphere resembling Earth. It even had names for each country. Seven points of blue light, each representing a weaver, were placed around the globe.

There was one in France, representing Rania; one in Russia, which John assumed was the lightly dressed man in the meeting; one in Arabia; one in India; one in China; one in North America; and one in South America.

But then twenty points of red light appeared, spread around the globe. Most seemed to reside in the ocean, but three were in Africa, two in Asia, one in Australia, and two in South America. All the land surrounding them was dark, without any dim light points that John assumed represented cities.

It painted a grim picture, but it seemed that the tyrants stayed away from civilization now, happy with the territory they had available. That wouldn’t count as an emergency, though.

“These are the tyrants we know of and their usual territories. They seem very invested in holding territories, making sure to stay clear of each other. And I think I understand why…”

She gestured to the space around them. “As I told you last time we met, this is my personal domain. Instead of influencing Earth, I contain my power here. But I have a theory that having a territory would help my powers grow somehow. It might be part of the key to get to the next level…”

She seemed deep in thought again, but quickly caught herself. “Oh, right. The current situation…” She waved a hand, causing all the red lights to shift in a particular direction. Straight to China.

“All tyrants are heading toward a new portal that recently opened in China. We don’t know why, but there is little doubt that it will have grave consequences. If they have learned to cooperate… we won’t be able to stop them, whatever they plan to do.”