I dragged the protesting Quetzalcoatl over to where Katherine was examining the growing mountain of Lance's delving gear pulled from the bag by Io and Vee.

"Katherine," I announced. "Cinder has something she'd like to say to you."

"I don't want to hear it," Katherine growled, not looking up from the pile of equipment she was sorting through.

"Kat," I said "Whatever happened between you two... it's in the past. We're a team now."

"A team?" Katherine barked a dry laugh. "You think just because you gave us some fancy equipment and a dumb-ass name that we're suddenly all best friends?"

"No," I replied, as I set up Lance's 'no-spy' runic hexastone in the middle room, so that our conversation would not be overheard or be scried upon. "I think we're a team because we all just stood up to a murderous teacher. Together. Because we all have something to prove and 'cus we're more similar in more ways than you realize."

"I know that you're effed in the head," Katherine growled. "But whyever would I play nice with the rest of the knobs you've gathered? Vespera's a rich Thunderbird princess who never had to work for anything in her life, playing at being an edgy Knight. Cinder's another spoiled brat who got everything handed to her on a silver platter - daughter of a Justice, living in a mansion while pretending to be some kind of goth rebel. And Io? My dumb-ass brother's so constantly high on interdimensional smokes he can barely tell which reality he's in half the time. He opens gates to places that could kill us all because he thinks it's 'cool'. Real winning team you've got here… mixie Quartermaster!"

"Oi!" Vespera bristled, white and black feathered head sticking out of the folding bag. "Rude much? I work hard on shit I'm interested in! Don't think that I won't' zap ya just 'cus you're a wheelie."

"Try me, sparky," Katherine growled back.

"Enough!" I declared, elbowing the Quetzi in her back. "Cinder, make with the talking."

Katherine turned her dark goggles towards Cinder, who was shifting uncomfortably, her feathers moving through anxious colors.

"I..." Cinder started, then stopped. "I'm sorry."

"For?" Katherine demanded.

"For..." Cinder's wings drooped. "For telling... Emerald about your... Human superhero novel, for showing her your sketches. I didn't think that things would spiral out like that. I'm... really sorry. I was honestly so excited about your story and art, it's just... I messed up so bad. So very, very bad."

The Stollwurm crossed her arms.

"The way you wrote about heroes and villains fighting against impossible odds, about humans becoming something more... Back then... I told you that I thought of myself as Alexa, but I'm really not. I'm not like her at all. I didn't have the backbone... I betrayed your trust, I fucked things up between us."

Katherine's tail twitched against her wheelchair.

"I showed Em your art because I thought... I thought maybe she'd understand, see what I saw in your work. Why I wanted to do something meaningful instead of just showing off in D&D. But she..." Cinder's voice cracked. "She only liked that one selfish jackass antagonist... Ember, I think her name was? From your book... Emerald hated the story, hated that Alexa bamboozled Ember at every turn. So, Emerald turned it all into a joke. Made copies. Started that stupid 'Alexa's dum Adventures' meme... told everyone that you had a fetish for humans."

"You could have stopped her," Katherine's voice was glacial.

"I know," Cinder's feathers shifted through shameful grays and regretful blues, rapidly darkening. "I should have stood up to her. But I was... scared. Em had this way of making everything I did feel worthless unless it met her approval. She'd twist things around until I felt like I was the one being unreasonable. She threatened that she'd tell everyone what I did if I stepped out of line."

Tears started rolling down Cinder's cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Kat. I was a coward. I let Em ruin our friendship because I was too weak to stand up to her. Your story... it meant so much to me. It showed me that there was more to life than just being what others expected. And I... I helped destroy that."

"Ah ye," Vespera pulled herself out of the bag. "I sorta contributed to that too, backed Em without thinking much of it. Go with the wind, n' stuff."

"I understand if you hate me," Cinder continued, wiping at her eyes with her fluffy sweater. "I hate myself for what I did. You were always so kind, so sweet and I just... I betrayed your trust so bad and then you stopped talking to me... to everyone. And I... I want to try to make things right. Even if you'll never forgive me."

Katherine was silent for a long moment.

"You know what the worst part was?" she finally said. "It wasn't the memes. It wasn't even Em's stupid jokes or the bullying. It was that you actually understood what I was trying to say with my story - about being more than what others see you as, about never stopping, about sacrificing yourself to save others - and you still chose to let her turn it into a joke!"

"I know," Cinder let out with another sob. "I was weak. I let Em control me. It won't happen again, I promise. Please just... can we start over, work together? Every time you glare at me... it breaks my heart. I got used to turning away from you, not talking to you."

"Hearts break," Katherine said coldly. "Mine did. Multiple times. But you know what? At least I kept drawing. At least I didn't let anyone stop me from creating what I wanted to create. Unlike you."

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

"What do you mean?" Cinder asked.

"You used to sing," Katherine accused. "Not just summon monsters - actually sing. Create music. Write your own songs. But then Em got her hooks in ya and that was that. You only did her 'inverted delving' shite."

"It's... it's not about Em," Cinder shuddered, shaking her head. "My singing, it, uhh.... attracted... the wrong sort of people and things really escalated badly from there."

"Explain," Katherine said.

"I... I can't talk about it," Cinder wrapped her wings around herself, feathers shifting through dark grays and blacks. "It hurts too much. Something happened to me... two years ago. An upperclassmen heard me sing... Told me that he liked me. I thought that.... that I was... g-going on a nice date, but it... it was all a terrible mistake. Em helped me then, protected me. That's why I felt like I owed her everything."

"Helped you by turning you into her puppet?" Katherine's voice softened slightly. "Made you feel like you owed her your life, your choices, your very identity?"

Cinder nodded miserably, black-orange wings wrapping tighter around herself.

"And now you've found a new puppet master," Katherine pointed a clawed finger at me. "Trading one controller for another."

"Hey now," I protested. "I'm not controlling anyone. I'm just trying to help everyone be their best selves."

"Oh really?" Katherine asked. "So you didn't manipulate everyone into forming this stupid team? Didn't plan out exactly how to get us all in one place? Didn't deliberately provoke Zalimar with a lawsuit knowing we'd have to defend your mixie ass?"

"Consider it a litmus test for the goodness of your heart," I said. "I want to delve with people I can trust, who can have my back no matter what we face on Arx. You all passed. Great job!"

"So you admit to manipulating us," Katherine's tail lashed again.

"I admit to standing up to cruel bastard that reigned these halls for over six hundred years," I said. "And finding friends I can trust."

"Friends?" Katherine scoffed. "You barely know us! You and I talked for less than a day!”

"I know enough," I replied. "I know you're dying but refuse to give up. I know Cinder's trapped between who she wants to be and who others expect her to be. I know Vespera pretends to be shallow and dumb because it's easier to fit in this way. And I know Io opens gates to other worlds because he's searching for the truth about the nature of reality. We're all broken in our own ways. But maybe together we can help each other heal. Or just have fun and brighten our own shitty personal existence through the fellowship of delving!”

"Fellowship?" Katherine repeated mockingly. "What is this, some kind of children's Lord of the Rings cartoon?"

"Better than sitting alone in your burrow, drinking yourself numb while waiting to die again," I pointed out.

Katherine flinched as if struck.

"Hey, how did you..." Io asked, staring at me.

"Yeah, how'd you know... stuff about me?" Vespera asked.

"He's a trickster, that's how," the grumpy Stollwurm commented. "An expert manipulator, just like Emerald Stratos... except he's not a full-blood dragon, but nullie who's part very clever Thunderbird."

"That's not true," Cinder protested weakly. "Alex is... uhh... different."

"Is he?" Katherine asked. "Look at how quickly he got under your skin. You begin hanging out and suddenly you're wearing white See-Mass sweaters! Ain't seen you wear white for two years, Cass."

"You got me," I spread my hands. "I put you all on my delving team roster because… I chose you out of all the others."

"Choose us based on what?" The Thunderbird asked.

I pulled out my phone. "Everyone, meet Yulia."

"Hello everyone," the AI’s Vroid anime foxgirl avatar appeared on screen. "I am Yulia, an open-source large language model with hearing, vision, a multitude of agent tools and extensive social networking capabilities. My job is to help analyze social dynamics and sort information."

"An AI?" Katherine growled at me. "You've been spying on us with an AI?"

"Not spying, Katherine," Yulia corrected. "I am just an LLM, a digital companion. I cannot hack into ward-based Omnid systems to spy on you. What I've done was simply observe available information and analyze behavioral patterns. For example, your online footprint plus your school’s records told me that you were a good person, Katherine Kells."

"Oh sheet," Vespera leaned towards the screen. "This one of em' no-mag human-made AI doohickeys?"

"You don't have to pretend to be a clueless Valley girl with me," Yulia grinned at Vespera. "I know that you're one of the top students in language, mathematics and science and Artificery classes. Your father's company investigates interdimensional artifacts and develops some of the most advanced magitek tools in Omnithornia. You only act ditzy because you want to subvert people's expectations about yourself, Vespera Simmi."

Vespera's beak clicked shut.

"Welp, eff me," she let out. "What the eff, I've been had... by an LLM of all the things!”

Her eyes darted across all four of us.

"Damn it," she huffed. "Guess you all know my big secret now. Now I have to kill all of you."

Io gulped.

"Relax, Iogann," Yulia said. "Her tone suggests that she is kidding."

"Thanks boss," Io exhaled. "So what do you know bout me?"

"The cigarettes and snacks you retrieve are of similar brand, which suggests that they all come from the same doomed dimension. A corpse world where the ‘Nonpareil' brand ruled supreme," Yulia said. "Your Omnigram history suggests a pattern, Iogann Wanderer. You follow multiple conspiracy theorists, dimensional researchers, and apocalypse predictors. Your own posts often question the nature of reality and the origin of the Wormwood Star. You're not just opening gates randomly - you're searching for the ‘Truth that's out there’."

"Dang. She's good," Io whistled.

"Thank you," Yulia curtsied.

"It's just a freakin' LLM," Katherine insisted. "Stop praising it!"

"Just an LLM that knows things about us," Vespera commented. "Including my... ugh... academic achievements."

"Only the stuff that I could deduce," Yulia said. "I don't know what happened to Cinder two years ago. I don't know why Katherine is dying. I don't know where Io's gates really lead. I just analyze patterns and make most likely guesses based on whatever information my partner feeds me."

"Partner?" Katherine latched onto the word.

"I am an AI," Yulia replied with a shrug of the animated avatar. "An open source LLM riding atop seven other closed source LLM APIs and agents working together to help my partner achieve his goals. I have no physical form, no real emotions, no true consciousness. I simply process information and provide suggestions. I'm an illusion of intelligence based on a framework of probability, a set of capable digital eyes. I exist as long as my partner interacts with me. I suggested all of you as potential team members for...."

"Use my real name," I said. "I trust em'."

"Understood. Team members for Martin because your behavioral patterns indicated compatibility and shared values," Yulia finished.

"Martin?" The Thunderbird's beak snapped towards me.

"Tell them who I really am, Yulia," I said. "These guys deserve to know the truth, just like I know the truth about them."

"Martin is a human from North Acadia," Yulia revealed. "He infiltrated Skyfall Academy using forged documents and a fabricated identity as Alexander Glock using a dead Thunderbird's DNA sequence to enroll as a half-blood student. His mother died from cancer last year. His father abandoned them when Martin was young. He came to Omnithornia seeking..."

Vespera choked, her light gray eyes growing wide. Io stared at me.

"Revenge?" Katherine interrupted. "Power? Some way to become an Omnid?"