"We?" I ask. I'm not sure when she's inserted herself into my plans for what to do next. I'm not exactly opposed to it, but I'm a little thrown off.

"We!" Mari says, and gives me a look that can only be described as a cross between legitimately concerned and dumbfounded. "You decide yourself?"

I grumble. More minds are better. I take a moment to summon Ahkelios — the mantis had decided he was bored about halfway through my attempt to imbue the stick with Firmament, and declared that I should summon him when I'm doing something interesting again.

Rude. But I can see why it'd be boring for him.

"Are you done?" Ahkelios says, peering down from my shoulder. "Ooh! Food!"

Before I can stop him, he dives into my soup. I gape at him, amused and offended all at once. "Ahkelios!"

"Always wanted to see what it'd be like to bathe in a bowl of soup," Ahkelios says cheerfully. I stare at him. "What? You haven't?"

"That's besides the point," I half-growl at him. "You can't just swan dive into my food!"

"I'm made of Firmament. I'm very sanitary, I assure you. If anything, I'm killing all the bad germs." Ahkelios makes a show of kicking back in my soup, and I sigh.

Mari seems amused — maybe strangely fond — but she drags the conversation back to the subject at hand with the skill of someone who's had practice at doing this. "We need decide what you do next," she says. "I not remember this after your loop. So... Need good plan. Plan that not change much."

"I need to get those Phantom Roots for Tarin." I frown. "I can look for a different one that isn't in the color-draining Hotspot. I shouldn't have to worry about running into Naru there."

"Roots rare. You search. But might not find." Mari considers this option for a moment, to her credit. "Tarin still resist?"

"I don't think he's getting worse, at least." I cast a worried glance over to the crow in question. I don't know how long that state will last.

"Tarin strong. He fight until he cannot fight. If he not getting worse, will take long time for him to get worse," Mari decides. She speaks with a conviction in her voice that I'm not sure is reflected in her eyes — I catch the way she glances over to Tarin for a split second, like she's worried about him too.

I grimace. There are a lot of things I have to consider. If this was a true time loop, I could afford to spend multiple loops searching through different Hotspots, or different Firmament-heavy regions, but...

It's not. Every moment I spend not training is a moment other people are dying in other Trials.

Not for the first time, I wish I had access to the full Interface. If there's a feature that lets me access other Trials, talk to people back on Earth, or even the Integrators themselves...

"I shouldn't be wasting time anyway," I say. "We know there's a Root in that hotspot. We just need to get past Naru."

"You have plan?" Mari asks me. "You not beat him soon. Training with me not help you much. You need danger for credits."

"I've noticed that trend, yes." I didn't get nearly as many points from sparring with Mari and Tarin than I did from fighting with the harpies, even though Mari and Tarin were objectively more skilled opponents. "Maybe if you can distract him?"

"Weren't you going to go explore the Fracture first?" Ahkelios pipes up curiously. He's mostly been listening to the conversation up until now.

"If it helps me get more out of that Hotspot, I should." Especially since the Fracture will count as training. The problem is that I don't know if I'm ready for it yet — it's classified as a Rank C area, and I don't have any reference point for where I stand.

"Ahkelios, do you have any ideas how the system ranks danger?" I ask. "I want to make sure I'm ready for the Fracture, but it doesn't exactly rank me, so I don't know how I'd compare."

And the Rank E Raid had a Rank C boss that I was only able to beat because I injured her while she was still a rank lower. That, I recognize, is basically a fail state for the Raid. I'm probably not meant to beat the harpy when it reaches Rank C.

But that still means I might have to face a Rank A threat. Fail state or not, I need to be careful about fighting anything that can mess up my Firmament, since I'll lose multiple loops to it if I do.

The Inspiration will help. More than that, though, I have time here to prepare. If I can make sure I get this done in one try...

An idea strikes me. I've just spent an hour trying to learn how to imbue Firmament. I haven't gotten a handle on anchoring that Firmament yet, but I can definitely do the enhancement, and it'll last at least a day.

That is, hopefully, more than enough time. And if I go to the Hotspot later, Naru might not even be there. That's something I should consider as well.

And then there's a third thing.

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"Mari," I ask. "What happens when I imbue other types of Firmament into something?"

Mari cocks her head at me. "What you mean?"

"You imbue your own Firmament into objects, right?" I start. "But my Firmament changes when I use a skill. The Firmament for Firestep is different than the Firmament for Tough Body, and all of that Firmament is different from my own, personal Firmament. So what happens if I imbue a skill into an object?"

Mari frowns at me. "I not know," she says. "Not everyone have Interface, remember? Only Trialgoer."

My eyes gleam.

"One last question." I'd almost forgotten, in light of everything else. "What did Firestep do to you? You seemed to get kind of... angry, when I used it."

Mari's expression darkens a little, and I almost take an instinctive step back, for all that she's sitting down. It's a reminder of the same expression she wore when the skill first began to burn her.

Then she sighs.

"That skill weak and strong," she says bluntly, which is entirely unhelpful. "Fire burn not... physical. Burn guilt. Shame. If you do thing you know is wrong, it hurt you for them."

Oh.

That explains why Naru screamed. Mari waves a wing at me dismissively before I can apologize, mistaking my look of realization for a look of contrition.

"It not hurt me much," she says. "Just make me grumpy. Remembered some annoying things. You use before?"

I grimace. She's observant. "I used it on Naru."

"It work on him?" Her eyes are interested, now.

"...He screamed."

"Hah!" Mari snorts and folds her wings. "I not see him scared for long time. Maybe good to put some fear into him. He too arrogant. Angry. Maybe I speak to him when you go Fragment."

"That's not a good idea." I remember what happened last time. "Please don't."

Though the practical part of me whispers that it won't really hurt her. That whatever happens, as long as she doesn't die as part of an Interface event like Tarin did, she should come right back in the next loop. If she confronts Naru while I'm in the Fracture, and Naru is gone when I visit the Hotspot... It'll give me the time to get the Phantom Roots and hopefully heal Tarin.

But there's also a dozen other ways this could go. I might not need Mari to visit the Hotspot at all; maybe Naru will leave after a few hours, and I'll be able to harvest the Roots without her needing to face her son again. I know from experience there's nothing but pain lying down that path.

"You serious." Mari looks at me, and there's an evaluating sort of frown in her eyes. I nod.

"You already tried talking to him. It doesn't go well." I cast my mind for more words to convince her, but that seems to be all she needs; she nods at me once, and then sits back down on her chair and starts drinking her soup aggressively.

That's... a better response than I was expecting. Somehow, I haven't fully registered that she's chosen to trust me, yet, and a part of that is just listening to me when I ask her to do something.

Having that trust is nice.

"I need to figure out if waiting Naru out is a reasonable option," I say. "So going to the Fracture first makes the most sense, anyway."

"You need help?" Mari asks. I grimace.

"No," I say. "Not until I have a better idea of what happens there." If a raid starts and Mari dies in it, I'm going to have two problems instead of one — and I don't know where to find more Phantom Root.

"But you ask if you need," Mari says, her eyes drilling into me. I nod.

"Sure," I say.

But only if I really need to. I'll get more credits if I push further on my own.

I just need to be careful.

----------------------------------------

I start by preparing a basic weapon for myself. Mari lends me a few stones that will hold on to my Firmament better — apparently, they're precious village artifacts, but when I protest she rolls her eyes and tells me the loop will reset them anyway.

I mean, she's not wrong, so I shrug and take them.

The main question is what imbuing something with skill Firmament is going to do. A basic imbuing makes an object stronger, tougher, and harder to break; a bit of manipulation on the part of the imbuer can make the object take on a variety of different properties, from making something soft and comfortable to sharp and deadly.

That's basic Firmament, though, the kind that everyone has. What happens if I imbue a stone with Firestep? Or Crystallized Strength? Or Temporal Fragment?

There's only one way to find out.

The process, though, is exhausting. It's one thing to use the skills as is — it's entirely another to activate the skill, and then force the Firmament to do the opposite of what it wants to. Firestep Firmament wants to move to my feet, and it takes an effort of will to force it into the rock instead. Crystallized Strength wants to flood into my muscles. Temporal Fragment is the only one that goes into the rock I give it easily, like it's just waiting for an anchor.

I have absolutely no clue what any of these rocks do, and given the difficulty involved in making them and my growing headache, I don't want to test them on Mari. Better I test it on the golems in the Fracture. Better economy of Firmament.

There's always next loop, after all, as much as I'd prefer not to die.

----------------------------------------

The Fracture looms before me. It looks just like I remember it — a long stretch that looks like a crack in the desert, with structures built into the walls deep, deep within the chasm. I call out Ahkelios, who peers down into the crack with a tiny, slightly-trembling body.

"Is this the right place?" I ask.

"Yes!" Ahkelios clings to my hair tight enough that it almost hurts.

"...Are you okay?"

"I might have died here more than once. From falling."

I chuckle. "I won't let you fall," I promise. I can always cancel the skill if he starts to fall anyway — although he's perfectly capable of flight in his Firmament form, so I can't imagine it'll be an issue. It's important to him, though, so I make the promise anyway.

And we descend into the Fracture.

Barrier. Crystallized Strength.

This time, the golem that darts out thunks into my Barrier instead of smashing my skull in. The force of the blow threatens to force me to my knees, but Crystallized Strength burns within me, and I dig my heels into the dirt and rock instead.

I smile grimly.

Good. I can do this.