When I stared at her, feeling my eyes threaten to bulge out of my head, Sera cocked her to the side as if she was confused about my reaction. The effect was ruined by the shit-eating grin she wore.

“Oh, I guess I have to give you at least a few more details, huh?” she said, with a barely concealed laugh.

I glared at her, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of getting a response to the stupid question.

If she was disappointed, she didn’t show it. “While you can never kill an Otherworlder through conventional means,” she said. “The Mediators have figured out how to purge Otherworlders from Materia for a long time.”

“Why don’t you just kill them as soon as you find them then?” I asked. I winced when I thought of Jamie outside. “I mean, I guess not all of them are bad, but what about Otherworlders like the Pestilence King? Why didn’t you kill him as soon as he came to Materia?”

“I never said it was easy,” Sera said. “The preparation process to purge an Otherworlder takes anywhere between a few weeks and several years, but regardless of the length, the process needs to be very careful and methodical. The Pestilence King was one of the recent examples of what happens when the process is done improperly.”

I frowned, but didn’t say anything, folding my arms across my chest and waiting for her to continue.

“To purge an Otherworlder, the Mediators need to know their dream. The source of their powers. The goal that the Guide is driving them towards. Once we know that, we can either make them renounce it or help them achieve it to trigger their finale event. Once that’s done, we do damage control on the aftermath.”

I waited for Sera to keep going, but she didn’t make any indication she had anything else to say.

“What do you mean? Are you saying that you fulfill an Otherworlder’s wish and they just die?”

“Essentially.” Sera shrugged. “Otherworlders aren’t supposed to be in this world. The only thing allowing them to even exist here is the Guide’s power, and the only thing connecting an Otherworlder to the Guide is their dream. Take that away, and their existence slowly fades too.”

Sera got up from her seat and walked towards me. At first, I thought she was going to try and jump on my lap again, but she simply sat down next to me on the seat that Jamie had just left. She gave me a serious look as she turned her head to lock eyes with me.

“Unfortunately, that’s where the problem is,” she said. “They fade slowly. We may call the final moments of an Otherworlder a finale event, but it’s far from a single moment. It takes approximately an hour for an Otherworlder’s connection with the Guide to die, but to an Otherworlder, that’s no time at all. In that hour, they can lash out and kill millions of people if they want to.”

It was obvious what she was talking about. “The Pestilence,” I said.

Sera nodded. “The personality of the Pestilence King and his dreams were especially complicated. Unfortunately, we had no way of knowing that, and a novice Mediator was given the lead for that case.” Sighing, she leaned over to the side and placed her head gently on my shoulder. “It was a disaster in every sense of the word.”

I looked down at Sera. Lying down on my shoulder, she was the picture-perfect image of a young vulnerable girl looking for comfort. I could’ve sworn I saw her eyes giving off the watery sheen of unshed tears. My eyes narrowed.

“Any reason why you’re putting up this act?” I asked. “Does it have anything to do with the fact that you haven’t mentioned that the Pestilence King had a civilian Follower?”

Sera looked up at me and smiled, any traces of sadness instantly gone. If it weren’t for the fact that I already suspected she was putting up an act for me like she was doing for Jamie, I might’ve been shocked by the sudden change. She sat up, leaving her spot on my shoulder and looked forward, avoiding my eyes.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought it would make you more comfortable.”

I sighed, leaning away from her, resting my head on the wall of the carriage. “It doesn’t,” I said. “I’d prefer if you were just honest with me. You think I’m a liability.”

“No,” Sera said immediately. “You’ve more than proven yourself to be a valuable asset to the operation. Although I won’t deny that you have the potential to become a liability.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“It really isn’t. You’re a smart girl. You pick up on things quite naturally, and you work well under pressure despite being a civilian. The only concerning thing about you is that you’re untrained and you don’t have the same knowledge that a Mediator typically would. But we’re fixing that right now, aren’t we?”

I thought about it for a moment before sighing again.

“Fine,” I said. “But from now on, be honest with me. No more bullshit.”

“Promise,” Sera said.

I didn’t believe her, but I didn’t blame her either. If I were in her position, I didn’t think I would trust me either. I was just a random country girl who had no real talents or skills. If it weren’t for the fact that I was a Chosen Follower, I doubted that she would’ve bothered to keep me here.

But I was here. I didn’t know how much she would tell me, but if she was offering to arm me with the knowledge to keep myself from accidentally forcing Jamie to destroy the world, I wasn’t going to say no.

“Fine, I believe you,” I lied. “You can continue your explanations.”

Sera smiled at me. I don’t know whether she could tell I didn’t believe her, but if she could, she didn’t seem to mind.

“Well, in that case, let’s continue.”

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Sera stood up again and took her original seat across from me. She held up three fingers.

“There are three major goals that the Mediators have when dealing with Otherworlders.” Sera put one finger down. “The first one is to determine the exact dreams that the Otherworlder gave to the Guide when they first arrived in Materia. Whether we decide to go the route of fulfilling them or forcing them to renounce them, this is important to determine as soon as possible.”

She put another finger down.

“Next is to determine their personality. Even though the Otherworlder’s Dreams are technically the most important thing to know if you want to trigger a finale event, their personalities are much more important to figure out if we want to ensure that our world is still standing by the end of it.

“While some are more than happy to trade their lives to complete their dreams, some of them are too afraid of death to take it gracefully and decide to throw a temper tantrum in their final moments, if they’re not satisfied with what preceded it. It’s our job to determine how exactly we can force an Otherworlder to be satisfied before their passing. Sometimes it takes years for us to be fully confident in the psychological profile we make for them, but many Otherworlders are simple-minded beings that only take a few weeks to figure out.”

She held up her last finger and stared intensely at me.

“This final goal isn’t necessarily a goal, but it’s important enough to be the top priority for anybody and everybody dealing with an Otherworlder,” she said. “If you break this rule, or if I ever suspect that you may think about breaking this rule, I have the authority of any and all of the ruling civilizations of Materia, to execute you on the spot with no trial. Am I understood?”

Sera had already threatened my life before, but this time, I could almost feel an imaginary knife sinking into my skin. I was suddenly made aware of the fact that we were locked up together in a small room, with nowhere to run. Though Sera was smaller than I was, she had casually shown off her strength to me enough times that I had no delusions that I could beat her in a fight if it came down to it.

Having feared constantly for my life for the past few days made the sensation of certain death a little less intense, but it still made me shiver.

“Understood,” I said.

Sera nodded, but the intensity of her glare didn’t fade.

“I’ve already told you this one, but I’ll say it again. The most important rule for anybody interacting with an Otherworlder is to never, under any circumstances, let an Otherworlder know about the existence of the Guide.”

I vaguely remembered her mentioning that before I talked to Jamie in the jail cell. “Why?” I asked.

“It destroys the fourth wall,” Sera said.

I stayed silent for a moment before realizing that I wasn’t talking to Jamie. My old strategy of staying silent when I didn’t understand something wasn’t necessary here.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It’s a translation of an archaic Elvish term that loosely translates to ‘speaking with god across dimensions,’” she said.

“That still doesn’t explain what that means. And why Elvish?” I asked. “I thought Elves went extinct millennia ago.”

“They did,” Sera said. “Two thousand years ago, the Elves went extinct with the exception of one. The founder of the Mediators. I’m not sure what the term specifically means either, but the outcome is terrifying enough that the specifics don’t matter. We can’t let the fourth wall be destroyed again.”

It took me a second to understand what she was implying.

“The Elves?” I asked vaguely, not wanting to say what I was thinking out loud.

“Elves were mythical, nigh immortal creatures that ruled Materia long ago,” Sera said. “Otherworlders existed back then, but they weren’t as much of a concern to the Elves as they are to us, as most of the Elves were powerful enough to match the strength of the Otherworlders. Even so, all it took to wipe them out was for one curious theological researcher to casually talk about the Guide to an Otherworlder he was friends with, dooming his entire race and about two thirds of Materia’s population. Let me make it clear to you, Lena. Destroying the fourth wall means destruction for us all.”

Sera smiled. Somehow. She stood up and reached over to where I was sitting to push my thumbs against the corners of my mouth and push my lips up into a grotesque smile. If I wasn’t so shocked, I might have moved away, but learning that I could have possibly destroyed the entire world if I said the wrong thing was… a lot.

“Come on, Lena,” Sera said. “Get your smile game on. We should get going. We can only pretend we're fixing up my skirt for so long. I just wanted to make sure you knew what the stakes were before we continued any further. I’ll make sure you learn more when we have the time, but we can only stay in here for so long before the Otherworlder notices something’s wrong.”

Sera took her thumbs off my mouth and I felt my lips snap down from the forced smile into the horrified, gaping expression that expressed my emotions better. Sera laughed and shook her head as she reached down and easily slipped out of her skirt and underwear in one quick motion. I didn’t have the emotional capacity to blush or look away, frozen in my horrified state.

“Be honest, she says,” Sera said, chuckling to herself, reaching under her seat into a hidden compartment and grabbing a spare change of pants. “No more bullshit, she says.”

I felt a slight tinge of regret that I’d said that. Maybe I would’ve been happier if I chose to remain ignorant.

“Well, you can't unknow it anymore,” Sera said, as if responding to my thoughts directly. She was clad in a bloodstain-free pair of tight pants now and was just adjusting her belt to fit it properly. “You’re cursed with the knowledge forever.”

She paused, as if giving me the opportunity to answer. When I didn’t, she gave me an apologetic half-smile and patted my shoulder twice.

“It’s a lot, I know, but you’ll get through it. It’s honestly astonishing that you’re not having a panic attack. I know I sure as hell did when I met my first Otherworlder. Unfortunately, even though I understand how you must feel, you’ve got responsibility now. You have to put on a smile, Lena, or the Otherworlder will know something’s wrong. You’ll have the opportunity to vent during your therapy sessions. Try to hold on until then.”

“Therapy sessions?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not, but the idea was so nonsensical that I couldn’t help but react.

Sera seemed amused that that was what I chose to react to, but she made no comment on it.

“Yeah, therapy,” she said. “All Mediators regularly attend therapy and are trained therapists themselves. It’s a requirement.”

“You’re going to be my therapist?!”

Sera laughed out loud.

“Oh, hell no,” she said. “You and I have way too much going on between us. No. Oren will be your therapist.”

A couple of days ago, I might’ve considered the idea strange. Oren was not the type of person I would’ve imagined as a therapist. Even though he’d been nothing but nice and polite after he stopped pretending to be a guard, he was a huge hulking figure that oozed intimidation simply by existing due to his sheer size and bulk.

But over the past few days, I’d experienced so many more terrifying things than a particularly large man.

“Fine,” I said. “That works with me.”

Sera laughed, though I couldn’t guess what she found so funny.

“Oh, don’t sound so disappointed, Lena,” she said. “Don’t worry, there’s no need to be lonely. I’m not going to abandon you.”

“Who said anything like that?” I asked incredulously.

Sera laughed again and reached up to poke at my face with her fingers. I grimaced and pulled back from her before she could try and force my lips up into a smile again.

“That’s seriously annoying, you know,” I said.

Sera smiled at me and lowered her hands.

“I had to do something to put a smile on your face,” she said, unfazed by the scowl I gave her. “Or a frown. Anything was better than that dead-inside look you had. At least you’ve got some life in you now.”

I did my best to deaden my face in response. It might’ve been a petty way to get revenge, but it was better than nothing. Annoyingly, it only seemed to make her laugh.

“You did the same thing back in Redstone,” Sera said. “It’s cute.”

I scowled at her again and turned to open the carriage door, if only to force her to stop. Sera’s laugh bubbled out of her anyways, echoing into the night.