“Magellan! My dear girl - It’s me Papa! Why don’t you let me in?”

Milk, who had just entered the room with Dibs on her shoulder, looked at Mul, reaching for his hand and giving it a firm squeeze. She was more convinced than ever, that he needed her.

“Wands at the ready,” Magellan said firmly. “It will take everything just to keep him at bay.”

“Don’t make me ask you a second time Magellan.”

“You don’t scare me Omega. You won’t come to my house and dictate terms you brute.”

“E-pek-teinon”, he intoned. All at once, all of the thousands of Sku-Zo parted from the barrier with a sickening slurp, and hung in mid-air writhing in their barely contained rage. Through the window of the little guest room, Magellan recognised many of the people she had known since coming to the Grove. Men, women, children and all in those in between.

“I am not trying to scare you Mag. I merely wish to talk to you my dear. To you and to the boy inside there with you.”

“Then talk. We can hear you just fine doom-wizard.”

“You know how terribly rude it is to yell from outside. Let’s be civilised like we once were, and take down this silly barrier, or I will.”

“If you could take it down I suspect you already would have.”

On that, Magellan was quite wrong.

“Catar-Refsi,” Papa said raising an old bone to the sky.

All at once the barrier around the house fell away. Instantaneously Papa was gone. There was a sudden silence, as even the Sku-Zo were temporarily quieted by the concussive force of Papa’s magic.

“He’s inside,” Milk yelled, more bravery than fear in her voice.

The trio and their matches turned to see Papa in the room with them. Even Magellan’s decrepit old Match, Anoitos, who could barely walk anymore stumbled into the room, placing itself between Papa and its master.

“As I said, there is nothing to fear,” Papa soothed. “Magellan, Anoitos, thank you for welcoming me into your home,” Papa nodded at each and bowed imperceptibly in the way of the Grovians.

“I want to introduce myself. My name is Papa Omega.”

With that he turned and made his way to the small kitchen, taking a seat on a stool and motioning for them to join him at the table.

“Sit with me child,” he said.

Mul and Milk each took a seat at the table, and Magellan stood behind them, her hand on her wand.

“First…I would like to apologise for scaring you - sometimes I do not know my own strength.”

“We know what you want slayer of time,” Magellan rebuffed.

“I don’t,” Mul interrupted. “I don’t know what’s going on or why, and if you’re the only one who can explain it, then do it quickly…””

Papa looked up, surprised by this sudden willingness. He’d had this sort of conversation a thousand times before. But this one felt different in so many ways. The boy was not fighting, he was lending his ear in a manner that even Papa himself would have considered unwise. He looked at the boy’s face, and detected a fire, an anger burning bright there. He could use this, he thought.

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“Perhaps I can ask you a question first,” Papa offered carefully.

Magellan looked between Mul and Papa, a frown moving across thin lips.

“Ask your question,” Mul demanded powerlessly.

“When I ask you to tell me how you feel at the centre of things - do you know what I mean?”

Mul shook his head, unsure.

“No,” he finally admitted.

Milk held her wand tightly. She’d fended this monster off before and she would again to protect her friend. But she really didn’t understand what was happening and it made her, and Dibs very uneasy.

“In your heart; your chest; in the tightness of your breath; in what you mortal children call your soul. What there?”

Mul seemed to understand. His Match took this moment to jump into his lap defensively, glaring at Papa with a growing light in his eyes.

“It feels empty,” Mul responded, “…worn out to a nub - withered.”

Papa nodded earnestly.

“So it does for all of you. There is the important thing at the centre of all. Through an unnatural and unholy magic, someone is holding on to all of this,” he said lazily gesturing to the Universe, “But you and I both know, it’s not meant to be.”

“You’re a liar Papa. You serve the great evil. The She.”

“Silence,” he barked, but immediately pulled himself back from complete rage.

“She is not evil,” he seethed. “She is inevitable.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying or why you pursue me,” Mul said, tiring, irritated.

Papa sighed, knowing it was too much for this boy to comprehend fully.

“You are mercy incarnate boy. You are the farmer’s knife at the neck of a sick lamb. You are the, the chosen one who can snuff out the fear and the pain, and perhaps free-up the cosmos to turn its energy to newer things, or at the least bring on some semblance of peace.”

“Dian MU in heaven!” Said a familiar voice as it’s owner tore into the kitchen. “My dear children you’re ok! We aren’t too late Exa.”

Ms Togami stood at the centre of the tense room, Exa on her shoulders. It was only at that moment that she noticed Papa Omega was also there.

“Exa,” Papa nodded, “Nou Nou, you look old.”

“Papa, I’m glad to see you, I suppose…” Ms Togami stuttered.

“Today really is full of surprises I must say,” Papa said looking baffled.

“You don’t know the half of it Papa. Things have changed. But more than that Dr Alpha is awake and he’s coming.”

“Who now?” Milk begged for some sort of understanding.

“I was just telling our mutual friend, Mulberry, how important he is to us.”

“But not what you want for me,” Mul interrupted again.

“I want you to be the hand of mercy.”

“Stop speaking in riddles. Please.”

“I need you to come with me, to meet my master and…” he paused for effect. “To help us to end everything.”

Mul virtually leapt from his chair when he finally heard the words. He almost tripped backwards at the frankness of what had just been said.

“You have to believe him,” Ms Togami said, moving to catch Mul and steady him. “We’re all stuck in a loop. I hadn’t realised it until recently - but it’s true.”

“It will seem like the wrong decision,” Exa said. “But boy you can feel this is an unnatural longevity.”

Milk stood up, a fire in her belly. She brandished her wand at Papa, moving between him and Mul. Papa visibly flinched, remembering the sting of her magic.

“Enough!” Papa screamed standing with his wand high in the air.

It was then, that the house exploded around them.

Alpha had come. And his ferociousness tore the house from around them.

The Sku-Zo evaporated into a mist. Papa was thrust so far by the magic that he disappeared into the clouds above them. The children were flung into a nearby field their matches scattered to the wind but otherwise unharmed. Milk was the first to move, followed by Mul and then by Miss Togami.

Mul screamed and they turned to discover the cause of his distress.

He held Magellan’s head in his lap, her dead eyes looking up into the sky. She was gone. She had been like a mother to him, and now she was dead.

“He means to kill you too,” Ms Togami said. “Alpha will destroy you if he can’t control you. He’s done it before. We need to get back to the Library. To the Perasma.”

“How will we evade him?” Milk said taking Magellan’s head from him, and trying to think of anything else not to focus on what she was doing.

Mul did not move.

“We evade him in the shadows,” Exa said, cloaking them suddenly in a shroud of darkness.

It was a single moment later when Alpha materialised.

They were gone, and he was furious beyond compare.

“You can’t hide from the light!” He yelled into the sudden blackness that sat upon the Earth.

“If I can’t have your mind Mulberry Gnat - I will have your pelt as my pyjamas.”