I texted Cove and Jacob as soon as possible, requesting another meeting to share my concerns about my recent conversation with Ava. They responded promptly, and I found myself in Jacob’s office for the second time within days.

Ranch ran up to Ani as soon as we stepped through the doorway, tackling him to the ground. They took off, using the entire room as their plaything while Cove and I looked on, exasperated. Jacob’s face lightened at the sight. I took my usual chair next to the waiting Cove, and, at Jacob’s gesture, started without preamble, explaining Ember’s dream and Ava’s statements afterward.

Cove and Jacob’s faces darkened as I spoke. When I finished, Cove said, “So the person who interfered has to be her, right?”

“It certainly seems that way,” Jacob agreed, his fingers steepled on the desk before him. “But we’ve yet to understand the how and the why she’d do such a thing.”

He turned to me, his eyes hard as stone. “Including why she decided to warn you.”

“Maybe she had to when his sister mentioned the dream?”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I pointed out, “if she is going to send us there, why warn us?”

Cove hastily stood up, sending his chair skidding back. “To trick us! Make us think we’re going to one place, then send us to another!”

I remained calm in the face of his anger. “That would have happened regardless of what world we were aiming for. It already happened, in fact.”

My words drained the anger from Cove’s figure, and he bonelessly dropped back into the chair. “So why did she?”

“And why did your sister dream you told her,” Jacob added as he leaned forward, his eyes unblinking as he spoke. “Has she shown any signs of magic before?”

My response was instant, unhesitant. “No.”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?” he pressed, “if you’ve seen any signs, we should get her tested. It would be catastrophic if Ava got ahold of another spacetime mage.”

I forced any suspicions of my own to the dark recesses of my mind, letting my thoughts linger only on my answer. “Positive.”

He leaned back. “Very well. Someone must have sent it to her if it wasn’t a sign of the future. Ava, perhaps? Or the mysterious third party?”

Cove raked frustrated fingers through his hair. “I got nothing.”

The dream before Heirs, the flame interfering with Cove and I’s attempt to reach Phoenyx, Nick’s forewarning from a mysterious cloaked figure…those, I was sure, were all the same person.

So then, who sent Bearard to What Lies Ahead? He claimed they were female, though Cove had implied someone strong enough in mental magics could change your perceptions.

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And who’d sent Ember the dream? Was it a trap, a helpful warning? Or was it a red herring?

My hands drifted back up to my earrings. Deep down, I felt a strong trust for the cloaked figure. He wanted to help–of that, I was sure. I also couldn’t see him disguising himself as a female to speak to Bearard, as the cloak already masked his identity.

The female who’d sent Bearard to us I was much less sure of. The pieces didn’t fit quite right for her to be Ava, and with only his appearance credited to her, there wasn’t much to go off of. She’d warned him that ‘someone’ would attempt to interfere, though someone could reference Cove and me or an agent of Ava’s.

Finally, there was the issue of my sister’s dream. Ava appeared to have some knowledge of the situation, backing Ember’s suggestion that I read Zenith Online. This implied that she was the one who sent the dream, but, if so, her motives were more unclear than before. It was possible the other female or the cloaked figure was also behind the dream.

So, as few as two different parties interfered with the fragments, and potentially as many as four.

The situation was quickly spiraling into something larger than any of us had anticipated, and we were moving blind. All we knew was that Ava wanted to collect more power, and we desired to restore Elm’s fallen universe. Everything else, such as Ava’s plan and the other parties' intentions, were complete unknowns and put us in a precarious situation.

Regardless, it would be foolish to do no research on Zenith Online before our next world travel. We’ve nothing to gain by ignoring that piece of advice and everything to lose. I suggested such to Jacob and Cove, leaving my thoughts on the parties unspoken. They did not need to hear baseless suspicions.

Cove coughed at my suggestion, rubbing the back of his neck slightly. His eyes darted over to his father, then back to me. “I’ve actually played the game a little. I can help you if you’d like.”

“It seems we are lucky you never grew out of such habits,” Jacob said a plastic smile across his face. “I’ll have our research team write up a summary.”

“What are we going to do about the witch?” Cove asked. “We can’t keep letting her run around, interfering in our plans. Or worse, find another spacetime mage like Hayden.”

Jacob’s response was dismissive. “I have people handling it. This isn’t something you need to worry about.”

“Yes, Father.”

There wasn’t much to say after that, and Cove and I herded Ani and Ranch out of the office, leaving Jacob to his work.

“You should make an account and play it,” Cove suggested when we’d walked a few hallways down from Jacob’s office. “You’ll better understand the game mechanics that way.”

“Her dream said to read the book, not play the game.”

Cove shrugged. “Like the existence of magical creatures such as chimeras in Heirs, other worlds seem to play by different rules. It would be foolish to go into the game blind, wouldn’t it?” he asked, sneakily tossing my words back in my face. “I don’t want to console you on your loss.”

He had a frustrating point.

“I can help you level up your knowledge,” he added. “Just pixel it.”

I was too mature to refuse his logic on principle, but the painful puns made it challenging to want to agree with him. Any sane person would agree.

“Fine, fine,” I agreed, hoping he would keep his mouth shut. “I’ll play the game.”

“Awesome! I’ll text you the details.”

“Perfect,” I said unenthusiastically. Video games were not my forte. I could recall playing a few with Ember when we were children, but when I’d matured in middle school, I’d realized how much of my time was wasted in them and focused more time learning from books instead. Now, I was nearing 30, and those years of playing video games were long behind me.

Surely, I wouldn’t embarrass myself too badly?