“What’s actually going on Khalil?” Jenny asked inside the spacious tent. Perhaps the tent was far too spacious for its actual size. An expensive commodity indeed. Khalil thought about his answer, aided by the sound of rain on the canvas of their shelter.

“You see, that’s a question that is much harder to answer than you think.” Khalil would have directed the conversation elsewhere, had Jenny not been used to his verbal manipulation.

“Khalil, just tell us.”

“You don’t know how much I would love to, but I can’t,” He stated.

“Why?” Jenny pushed. Darryn was half listening to the conversation. The other half of his mind was wondering if the deluge was the Reflux trying to drown him once more. He didn’t worry about the fact that he left Yuclaus alone in an intense thunderstorm.

“If I could tell you why I can’t tell you, it would defeat the point of me not telling you.” Khalil said, confusing Darryn.

“Or, you could just tell me why you can't tell me without telling me what you're not supposed to tell me.” Darryn decided to zone out for a few more minutes.

“But if I tell you why I was told not to tell you, then I would indirectly say too much about what I can’t tell you.”

“Ah-ha! You just told me that someone told you not to tell anyone. So who is it?” Khalil clicked his tongue at his slip up.

“Well, you will probably deduce this already with all that has been happening…” Khalil trailed off. He should be able to tell them. In fact, he might have to eventually. “It was Sam Colon.”

“Sam Colon?”

“Cologne?” Khalil and Jenny stared at Darryn, stumped once more by his weirdness.

“Why did you say cologne?” Khalil dared to ask.

“If you say the second o like ‘oh’, it sounds like cologne,” Darryn replied, as if they should have already thought of this.

“Yes, that it does,” Khalil let out an exasperated sigh, “but, why?”

“It sounded right… familiar…” Darryn turned back to one of the corners of the tent, and began to poke at it. Alas, no matter how much he poked, no water seeped through the material.

“Anyway,” Jenny put the conversation back on the rails it had just left, “So the Mayor? That is why you went to meet her on your own huh?”

“You knew?”

“Well yeah, I almost always have someone tailing you in the city—”

“You have someone tail me—”

“But why did she ask you and not me?”

“Well, I am the leader of our adventuring party,” Khalil shrugged, “it makes sense.”

“It would make sense,” Jenny said, “If the Mayor didn’t occasionally hire me to use my information network for her. It would be easier to work with me.”

“Ouch. Hey, I am splendid at planning, paperwork, and magic I’ll have you know.”

“Yes, you are, but I didn’t mean you weren’t qualified. Since I have worked with her before, I know how she operates and how she likes things. It is a matter of making what she wants bespoke.”

“Well, if it makes it any easier to stomach, she did say that ignorance was a necessity. Perhaps, you would know more about this… mission, and not act the way she would prefer,” Khalil reasoned.

“That is a—” Just then, a faint light emanated from the bag at Khalil’s side.

“Speak of the devil. I’m not supposed to have you around, but I don't have time. If you can keep absolutely silent, you can hear our conversation. However, do not, and I mean do not, say a word,” he paused for a moment, “I won’t explain anything afterwards,” he said as an afterthought. Without waiting for their response, Khalil pulled the orb out, and closed his eyes for a moment. The orb activated at the touch of his magic, and Sam Colon’s voice came through.

Khalil. How are you doing this rainy evening? I am assuming that the Cloud Continent has reached you by now? Her voice was as clear as a spring pond. If the adventurers closed their eyes, it would sound as if she was right in front of them.

“I’m doing well, Mayor. You called earlier than our planned time though, is something wrong?”

Well, I heard that some of the forward parties were getting antsy. A few too many groups mysteriously started heading back to Fort Colon. I figured you were one of them, and would have good news. Khalil took the information and stored it for later. It seemed they had not gone unnoticed. Not that he was surprised.

“You are correct. He is with us.”

Truly? What is his name?

“Yuclaus.”

Race?

“It seems he is an Environ.”

An Environ? What makes you believe that?

“He has a spore, and has various vines on his body he can seemingly control. He also said so himself.”

I see. What color are his eyes? Jenny was confused and surprised at the sudden question. They hadn’t seen his eyes. Granted, Jenny wasn’t looking up when it came to Yuclaus. It did seem as if the Mayor left something unsaid though.

“They are orange.”

Are you certain?

“Yes.”

Then it is exactly as expected, she mumbled, but Jenny knew that anything they heard was said on purpose. Proceed to lead him to me, and I will take it from there.

“Do you want me to endanger him like planned?” There was a moment of silence. Sam was torn. She should say yes, but a selfish part of her wanted to talk to him first.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

No, just lead him to me.

“As you say.”

[https://i.imgur.com/VtExBEV.png]

“You aren’t going to tell me are you?” I asked Meagan. We were taking shelter in a house that I carried with me for such rainy occasions.

“Nope! I would but trust me, you would prefer it this way too. I mean, I think you would, but then I could be wrong. I’m sure you would understand,” Meagan replied.

“Why does this have to be so complicated?” I was at the end of my rope. First, I nearly had a mental breakdown in front of Meagan. I’m sure she will blab to everyone at the Faction, and I will be hearing about it for the next century. Then again, Meagan can sometimes do the right things in the weirdest situations. The way she was acting earlier was a shock as well. I know she can get serious during her job, but I’ve never seen her get… worried? I have seen her emotional plenty of times, but not like that. In any case, the point was I had a mental breakdown, and now she won’t even explain why there is a Yuclaus doppelgänger.

“Someone once said that ignorance is a necessity.” A necessity? Ugh, now she’s starting to sound like Lani. I can never escape can I? And I want to respect Meagan’s request to not pry, but screw it, I’m her boss. Not to mention, I am already involved.

“That’s not Yuclaus is it?”

“He said his name was Yuclaus,” Meagan replied with a cheeky smile.

“He did, but he isn’t our Yuclaus is he?” So help me if she tries to avoid this question I’ll open a can of whoop as—

“What makes you say that?” She tilted her head to the side. I think I know what game she’s playing. She won't say anything concrete, but if I come to the conclusions myself, maybe she’ll agree? I’ll give it a shot.

“Well, for one, he looked like a robot.”

“A robot? Like a toy robot?”

“No, like the uncanny valley robot. He looked like Yuclaus, sounded like Yuclaus, but he didn’t talk like him. Not to mention, Yuclaus was a Reform. Last I checked Reforms have to breathe. This Yuclaus’ chest never moved unless he was talking.”

“Oh. I think I may have noticed that too. How was he talking weirdly though?”

“Imagine if our Yuclaus grew up in another family. He would still look and sound the same, he might even have the same abilities and tendencies. However, his personality would be different. This Yuclaus seems too different. Our Yuclaus was more relaxed, professional in work, but also would have fun with friends. However, he was never high energy. He had cheesy jokes yes, but—”

“He seems too different? If I didn’t know better, I would say he seemed very similar to someone,” Meagan put her pointer finger on her lip. Sometimes, her “cutesy” actions made me want to deck her. Then again, like today she has always been there for me, so I’ll let her games slide.

“Now that you mention it, he doesn’t act exactly like him, but this Yuclaus is acting a lot like Cain.” The mere thought of that man made my blood boil.

[https://i.imgur.com/x25YomT.png]

“I know we followed you,” Kira said from next to me. We stood under a hastily erected magic barrier, our clothes dripping water. “But tell us why we are leaving the hunt for the multisystem user. A hunt which, if we were successful, would allow us all to retire for the rest of our lives comfortably.”

“Ah, it’s because one of the multisystem users already left.”

“What?”

“What!” Kira and Vella said in unison.

“Yeah, but if I told you guys earlier, I was sure some skill would hear what I said. We want to retire for the rest of our lives, right?” And I would like to ask a favor from Sam Colon. Of course that’s our main goal, Hanz. Would we even need to though? We could just ask the Administrator, she is right ahead of us after all. Something tells me, we won’t get the opportunity to if she's protecting the multisystem user. Then why don’t we help them? Won’t that earn her good will, and we can leverage that? We might just. I don’t care what you tell the rest of the party to get them onboard, but for now I simply want to watch and wait. Whichever way the axe falls, we will be ready.

“...Hendrick?” Kira was peering up at me.

“Huh? What’s up?”

“We asked how you knew,” Vella said.

“Ah, well you see,” crap, what should I say? Tell them the usual excuse. “You know my coordination skill?”

“Oh! The one that allows us to communicate telepathically and sense where others are while fighting?” I was glad my party trusted me enough to accept such a wild explanation.

“Exactly. To set it up, I have a table with everyone around me I want to include. It gives me basic class and skill information. However, someone in that group had multiple systems,” I lied through my teeth.

“No way! I had no clue you could do that,” Vella exclaimed. I felt a pang of guilt, but by now I was used to lying to the two of them.

“That is quite a useful skill, I do wish you mentioned it earlier,” Kira said with a hint of annoyance, “It would have made many quests much easier. Not to mention, we could have taken that into account while planning.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry guys. It really is my fault,” It’s my fault for more than you know. Are you talking about that time I tricked you into stumbling into them while they were taking a bath? “WHAT? No, I wasn’t thinking of that at all!” I realized my outburst once more when Kira looked at me with concern.

“I’m glad you know you made a mistake, but you don’t have to get so worked up over it. Just don’t do it again,” She said while kicking at the mud. Maybe you weren’t thinking about it now, but we both know your mind sometimes… wanders. Why did you even put us in that situation in the first place? It gets boring in here, I wanted to liven it up a little. Nothing better than some great memories. You pervy old man.

“Don’t worry guys, going forward if there is anything else I find that I haven’t told you, I’ll let you know immediately.”

“Good,” Kira nodded her head. Do you regret lying to them all the time? Hanz's voice was serious. It seemed he really did care behind all of his joking. Of course I do. Though I initially viewed you as my jailor, we have bonded over the years. But if you want to, we can always tell them. No, it's the smart thing keeping it a secret. Sometimes, ignorance is a necessity.

[https://i.imgur.com/NYUUOLC.png]

“SEN! There is no way you added that much spin to the ball! You have to be cheating,” Yuclaus ranted at me from the other side of the table. After a bit, he had gotten restless, and introduced me to this interesting game called Pong Ping.

“Yu, how could I cheat? You made the ball, didn't you?” He had in fact crafted the Pong Ping ball out of a Wisp he hollowed out. It was one of the Wisps I was carrying to experiment on, I believe it was a bird of some sort. It worked out perfectly as the Wisp was light enough to bounce a good height. Perfect for Pong Ping. However, I soon realized he was far better at the game than I was. It seemed Yu was quite proficient in Pong Ping while he was on Earth.

“Yes, but you made the table. Are you moving the vines to redirect the ball?” Once Yuclaus realized he was better than me in something, he made sure to use it to his fullest advantage. He won four straight games with me only getting a handful of points here and there. He didn’t gloat, but the look in his eyes said enough. I had to do something.

“You would see the vines moving if I did. You told me to have no vines overlapping so that I couldn’t cheat after the last game.” After those four games, I decided if I could not win playing by the rules, I would have to win outside of them. Yuclaus was right in assuming I had the table redirecting his balls, but that was games ago. I had a feeling he would catch on, so I evolved my ways. At one point, I started lowering and raising the net ever so slightly to get in the way of his ball, or allow mine over.

“What about the net?” I realized the net would soon be suspect, so I moved onto my ultimate method: moving his arm ever so slightly with the vine when he would swing. It was ever so slight that it was nearly unnoticeable. With Yuclaus irritated, it would be impossible for him to discover the true cause.

“We used rocks to support it so that you would see if I changed it.” A brilliant way to assure him I was not cheating. He would not expect me to offer a solution to foil myself.

“Huh. Maybe I’m just not as good as I remember. Let’s go again.” I smiled inwardly. I may tell him the truth someday, but for today, ignorance is a necessity.

[https://i.imgur.com/CkSEeqv.png]