Chandra already had her phone in hand, tapping away on an app as they strolled away from the werebeast bar. Archie walked by her side and cast a glance at her device, noting with mild curiosity that she was ordering another ride share.

"Ready to call our evening done so soon?" He asked her.

Chandra looked up from her phone just as she was about to finish her order and met the rabbit's gaze. Her golden eyes quivered and she quickly wiped a tear out of them. "Sorry. This isn't how I wanted tonight to go."

"Things seldom ever do," Archie shrugged. "For what it counts, I enjoyed our time. Even Elliot's little rampage was fun."

"But—" Chandra swallowed nervously. Her hands trembled, and for a moment it looked like she might drop her phone. Archie gently took her hands in his and held them just tight enough to be a reassuring presence. "I'm sorry."

"You're apologizing an awful lot tonight."

The werewolf snorted and shook her head, wiping her watering eyes with her shoulders. "I feel like such a mess. That's not even the first time I've dealt with a werebeast going full monster. But it never stops hurting."

"We saved Elliot tonight, love. He's in good hands."

"But it shouldn't have happened at all," Chandra insisted. She pulled her hands from his and stared down at them. "I…"

"I think you're just a little bit stressed from having been confronted with your worst fear," Archie interrupted, before she could finish that thought.

"You think that's my worst fear?" She asked, lifting her head and flicking an ear.

"I assume so. I can't imagine much else you'd have to be afraid of.

Chandra let out a bark of a laugh and shook her head. "I'm not scared of turning into a witchwolf, Archie. I spend far too much time in my beast form for that to ever happen to me." Her expression immediately soured again, and she let out a long sigh. "I'm scared of being left behind."

"Left behind?"

"My parents kicked me out, Archie. They abandoned me when I was at my most vulnerable, when I was recovering from that witchwolf attack and dealing with the fact that I was turning into a monster. And they didn't even give me a chance to reconcile with them once I gained full control. They packed their bags and left the city a long time ago." Chandra pressed the home button on her phone, closing the ride share app and revealing her wallpaper. It was a picture of her a few years younger, sitting on a park bench. Flanking her on either side was an older woman and man, clearly her parents, with two younger sibblings on the ends.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it affected you so deeply."

"It's okay. I made my peace with this a long time ago. I still keep in touch with my little brother and sister, even if it's only through occasional text messages." Chandra shook her head and reopened her ride share app.

They continued walking in silence for another twenty or so seconds, before stopping in front of an old convenience store.

"Who are you afraid will leave you behind?" Archie finally asked. "It surely can't be me. You know I'm not going anywhere. Even if this body is destroyed, Zack preserves my memories every night while I sleep so he can revive me if I were to perish outside his walls—don't tell him I know he does that, I think he's trying to be subtle about it."

"It's not just you, Archie," Chandra said, chuckling a little at his tangent. "I've found a new home, a new family even, amongst the were community. But with people like Elliot, who turn into monsters… I'm scared that one day I'm going to wake up and find out my neighbors all transformed while I slept and left me behind. Not exactly the most rational fear, I know—"

"I'd hardly say that. From where I stand, you're afraid for the people around you rather than for yourself. You want them to be safe and happy. That's a noble concern to have."

"I suppose that's true, but it doesn't make the anxiety any worse for me."

"My dear, I can't imagine anything I say would truly fix the way you feel about this situation. I'm not a therapist, I can't run you in mental circles until you come to conclusions on your own and have a breakthrough. I'm just a rabbit." With a gentle hand, he lifted her chin so they were looking each other in the eyes. "I may not know much about being a werebeast, but I think I'd know a thing or two about wanting to protect the people around you. I am, after all, constantly baby sitting a dungeon core with a bad habit of attracting the wrong attention."

Chandra let out a soft chuckle and stared deeply into Archie's eyes for a few breaths. He could hear her racing heart settle down, only pick back up again as he leaned and pressed his lips against hers.

The kiss was interrupted as a blaring horn made the two jump out of each others' embrace. Chandra turned to face the road, where her ride share had arrived to pick them up. "I guess it's back to the dungeon with you?" She asked, turning to face Archie again.

"It doesn't have to be. I could spend the night with you, if you'd like?" Archie offered.

The insides of Chandra's ears turned bright red with blush, but she didn't refuse his offer. "That's going to make the path of this ride share more than a little awkward."

When Archie returned to the dungeon the following morning, he was elated to discover that Zack had not burnt down in the middle of the night. He could feel the core's smugness radiating from his influence as he once more stepped onto dungeon territory. The emotion faded quickly, though, as Zack noticed a goofy grin on the rabbit's face.

"Got to test those new parts I gave you, eh?" He asked in a teasing voice.

"I will neither confirm nor deny any allegations. A gentleman does not speak of private affairs."

"Yeah, sure. I could probably pry the answer out of you if I annoy you enough, but I doubt that would be a satisfying process to either of us. Let's leave Shroedinger's rabbit in the box and pretend you were just out on a midnight patrol."

"Shroedinger's rabbit? That's the metaphor you're going with?"

"I thought it was pretty clever, thank you very much," Zack huffed defensively. "Why? How would you put it?"

"Let's not follow that rabbit to Wonderland," Archie said immediately.

Zack's disembodied consciousness hovered by Archie in shock for a few brief seconds. "That's pretty good too, I guess."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Admit it, I'm more clever than you."

"At making rabbit metaphors, sure. We're getting off topic, though. Did you at least have fun?"

Archie gave Zack a quick run down of events the previous night, omitting any details that might have happened while in the privacy of Chandra's apartment. Thankfully, Zack didn't pry into it, leaving it up to his colourful imagination instead. When he was finished, Zack spun up a wisp and bobbed approvingly.

"You wouldn't happen to have recovered one of that weremoose's antlers, would you?"

Archie shook his head. "I didn't try to grab them. It felt wrong to pick them up, especially since they had been attached to the man's head before popping off."

"Shame. Magical moose antlers are probably powerful alchemical reagents," Zack let out a wistful sigh. "Anyway, there has been a development worth talking about."

"Something more important than my night? I'm surprised, Zack. Normally everything has to be about you, and since I'm a part of you, it has to be about me."

Zack spun up a pair of wisps in the shape of eyes in order to truly sell Archie on the unimpressed look he wanted to muster. After a conciliatory laugh from the both of them, he explaiend in further detail. "Iris has finished remodeling her room and is finally willing to speak to someone. I was hoping you could be present to hear what she has to say."

Archie nodded and gestured for Zack to lead the way. Technically, he didn't need to be in the room for this conversation. Zack could simply beam the information diretly into his mind. Despite that, Archie appreciated that Zack valued his insight. His presence at this meeting was just as likely to be about the ideas he could provide as it was about keeping him appraised of any discovery they might make.

One of Zack's emerald wisps led Archie through the twisting tunnels under the dungeon and into Iris' library. The last time he'd seen it, it had been a relatively small space filled with books. Now, at the steps beyond the door's threshold, he spotted that something odd had occured.

"Zack, would you kindly explain why there are stacks of books on the ceiling?" Archie demanded.

"Hmm? Technically those are book stalactites. You can tell they're tites and not mites because—"

"Zack."

"Iris has some control over spacetime," Zack confessed. "I'll admit, I didn't know about that when I offered her this space. Thinking about it, though, it does have some sense to it. How else would she be able to hold so much data if she didn't have the space to contain it?"

Archie frowned as he stared at the Escher-like paths before him. They were lined with bookshelves on either side, and seemed to twist and coil around each other in unnatural ways. He couldn't understand the path laid out before him, even as Iris' yellow wisp appeared a few feet away.

"Sorry about the mess," she apologized, the wisp bobbing up and down. "I haven't really had a chance to tidy this place up."

"Not a problem. We were wondering when you were going to allow us entrance to your library again," Zack said.

"Oh. About that. I'm not a library core anymore," Iris explained. "I underwent a core evolution. That's why I had to close down the library and remodel the whole room."

"I'm probably going to regret asking, but I despise being left out. What's a core evolution?" Archie asked.

"Core evolution is when a core's fundamental nature changes through advancement," Iris explained. "In my case, I went from being a library core to being an archive core. Similar functions, but vastly more power. In addition to storing information, I now also have the power to store artifacts and creatures in stasis. My ability to create guardian mobs is also vastly increased."

In demonstration, would of the book stalacmites abruptly stood up, forming into one of the many book golems that Archie had previously seen lumbering through the library. The paper giant stood at attention beside the archive core's wisp. It didn't so much as twitch an arm.

"And the twisting tangle of paths?" Archie asked.

"I was able to unlock an elemental mastery, and I chose the spacetime element," Iris explained.

"That's one of the high elements, right?"

"Not as such," Iris said.

"Not really," Zack added, almost at the same time.

The two wisps hovered in place for a moment, as though waiting for the other to speak up. After a couple seconds of silence, Iris picked up the conversation. "Spacetime is what is known as a fundament element. It's one of the basic building blocks of the universe."

"Hold on, I've never heard of that," Zack butted in. "I thought spacetime existed on its own eschelon, above the other elements."

"Oh, hardly. This world's understanding of magic is quite basic, and as a result its understanding of magical elements is equally limited," Iris giggled.

"You talk like you've seen other worlds," Archie frowned and crossed his arms.

"Not as such, but I have had a chance to speak with our mother. It was a brief visit, and I barely remember my time with her, but the information she bequeathed to me is truly universe shattering."

"Mother?" Zack muttered. "I think I remember her name. Akasha?"

"You've met her?" Iris asked.

Archie shot is dungeon's wisp a look from under raised eyebrows.

"I… I don't know. It's all hazy. I remember warmth and light. And a voice. A soft voice that cared about me. Definitely not my human mother, though. Someone else, someone new. And a name. Akasha." The wisp unraveled for a moment, as though Zack's focus was too distant to keep it held in place. Then, all at once it tightened again. "Why can't I remember more than that."

"It's a side effect of her being a core so far beyond our limits. The only reason I have any memories of her at all is because, as an archive core, it is literally my job to retain information. But you are a dungeon core, with very different functions compared to me. I suspect as you continue to grow and advance, more memories will make themselves known to you. Now, where was I? Oh right, fundament elements.

"This world has categorized elements into two categories: basic and high elements, with Spacetime sitting outside the dichotomy. Academic journals call them core and secondary elements, but neither name are truly correct. In fact, to call them elements at all is a misnomer."

"Elemental magic isn't actually creating these elements out of thin air, but rather granting mana aspects of those elements. It's why something like a conjured bottle of water doesn't stick around while one I make out of mana will."

"You're correct in most regards. Conjuration magic does have the potential to become real, however that is a topic for another day. In regards to elements, though, there are far more categories than just the three that we know. But I digress. Spacetime is a fundamental aspect, a rule even, of the universe."

"Is that what defines a fundament element? They're a basic rule of the universe?" Archie asked.

"I would hardly call spacetime manipulation basic, but to a layman you are correct," Iris declared haughtily.

"Are there other fundament elements we've never heard of?" Zack asked.

"Oh absolutely. I can't quite remember them yet, and I think Akasha has locked me out of that part of my library. What I do know is that one element previously categorized as a high element is in fact a fundament one."

"Let me guess: the element of magic?" Zack offered.

Iris hovered silently in place.

"Just a hunch," Zack muttered, bobbing his wisp in a shrug.

"You're correct all the same. Yes, magic is a fundamental building block of the universe. It's a necessary ingredient for life to flourish, one could even call it the energy pulsing through our brains. I have no proof of it yet, but if souls exist then they are most certainly magical in nature."

Archie shot Zack's disembodied consciousness a quick glance. When there was no reaction from the dungeon, he decided it might be best not to let Iris know that her theory was correct. It wasn't that he wanted to keep that information from her, but rather it was simply not his knowledge to share.

"So Cornelius Snow had control over one of these fundament elements. That's good to know, I guess?" Archie finally said, breaking the silence.

"He's not the only one," Zack mumbled. "Let me guess, another one of these fundamental elements is mathematics?"

Once again, Iris hovered stunned in place before speaking again. "Um… Yes actually. How did you know that?"

"I didn't, it was a lucky guess."

"Lucky? You took a guess that was correct and it was lucky?"

"The odds looked good to me," Zack chuckled.

"Zack," Archie said in a warning tone. "What are you going on about?"

"Just a feeling. You remember that Unseelie bolt spell that you have? I think it might be based in the math element. Because if any creature on this planet had manipulation of mathematics at their disposal, I bet it's those fairies."

"Fairies?" Iris squeaked in fear. "There are fairies involved!?"

"I take it you've heard of them?" Archie asked, crossing his arms.

"Heard of them!? That was one of the biggest collections of information my jailers gave me while I was in Snow's custody! If I didn't know any better, I would wager they were trying to get rid of information without permanently deleting those discoveries."

That earned another raised eyebrow from Archie. "What exactly does this mean for us?"

"It means bad news," Zack grumbled.