The vision faded to a blur of colours. I blinked away the remnants of the waters that had somehow made their way into my helmet, and which washed through the rest of my armor as if it didn’t exist at all. But knowing that the water had all that… Staura essence, I guess could understand if it didn’t follow much–if any–of the rules I knew.

I shook the waters off my fingers and turned toward Jun. She was doing the same, and her loose posture told me she’d just come off of some vision of her own. I looked to Okeria to see how he’d reacted, but he wasn’t in the slightly filled pool with us. He was talking to Mortician with his helmet under one arm and a half-full see-through metal canteen halfway to his mouth.

Mortician was the first to notice Jun and I were back from wherever we’d just been. “Sebastian, Juniper, you’re back! What sort of visions did you experience from the hallucinogenic remnants of Staura, memories and physical?”

“Just one scene. And a few really important things from it.” I said as I stepped out of the pool. A quick glance upward showed that the reservoir had completely refilled itself, and the glass had knit itself together. “Did you do that, Okeria?”

He followed my gaze, then shook his head. “Drowned thing emptied itself fully, then capped itself with the glass I broke ta drop us into the ritual bath. I didn’t see anythin’ at all, but Mortician here insisted that the two of ya were seein’ somethin’ thanks ta your clearance. Looks like they were right.”

Okeria flicked his wrist and summoned a chunk of metal so heavily engraved with light blue runes that I could barely make out the silvery sheen underneath. He placed it in Mortician’s outstretched hand with a grunt of annoyance, and Mortician dispelled their helmet for a moment to give him a wide smile and a nod as they sent it into their inventory.

“You bet on what was happening to us?” I asked in disbelief. Not at Okeria; I expected that much from him, but Mortician?

“Not my idea. And now I know Mortician here was just lookin’ ta scam me outta somethin’ I scammed them outta.” He gave Mortician a small nod of grudging acknowledgment. “Well played, ya little rascal.”

Mortician put their helmet back on and summoned their book. “He promised us a small generator and a kit to write our own passages so we would not need to return to him whenever we wished to empower our book. He gave us one of those things, and then pretended to forget ever having promised us the other.”

“Sounds like something he’d do.” Jun chuckled as she moved to my side. “Seb, what’d you see in your vision? Was it all about Acasiana and Endra?”

I nodded. Jun sighed in relief, then gestured for me to take a step to the side. As I did what she asked, she stepped closer and grabbed my arm to make me stumble ever so slightly.

I raised an eyebrow at her seemingly pointless ask. “What was that for?”

“Just making sure this isn’t a very elaborate illusion. You aren’t, by the way.” She said seriously, and with more than a little relief. As if she’d just seen something much more intense than my vision. Or… maybe I was just a little too used to horrible things.

“You alright?”

Jun waved off my concern. “I’m fine. It wasn’t fun being Acasiana for those few minutes, especially not feeling Endra’s worms in me, but it’s done now. And my armor’s doing a really good job at suppressing the trauma I should probably be feeling right now.”

Okeria whistled and sent away his canteen. Mortician winced in sympathy, and I just stared at Jun with wide eyes she couldn’t see. “I was just an observer. You actually felt what Acasiana felt? Did you… think what she thought?”

“No. Only sensations and emotions–no concrete thoughts. But it was more than enough to know the kind of person Acasiana actually is.” Jun paused. “Was. You know how some people say they don’t hate someone after something horrible happens? That isn’t Acasiana.”

Jun summoned a piece of paper from her inventory and offered it to Okeria. He accepted it with one raised eyebrow and glanced at the contents. Thirty seconds later, he clicked his tongue and shook his head as he sent the paper into his own inventory.

“That’s one driven woman. To willingly put yourself in spatial isolation for that long just ta make sure Endra couldn’t fulfill her plan for thousands of years… drown me, I couldn’t do that.” Okeria chuckled grimly. “Well, I think we can count on her not betrayin’ us for more than a long time. And it’d also make sense why she took a shinin’ ta ya three; you’re fightin’ Endra just like she was.”

“Exactly what I thought.” Jun agreed and locked visors with me. “We need to find some way to free her from that hazard without trapping one of us in there. You saw how powerful she was, Seb. If neither of Okeria or Inopsy are a match for Keratily, Acasiana might be.”

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She made a good point. But Acasiana made us think she was content with her arrangement. It could’ve been a lie, but she’d also prayed to Moricla right after she dealt with all of Endra’s corruptions. And then she’d lived for thousands of years with only one person’s company after that. Nobody stayed the same for that long.

But I couldn’t dismiss the thought. We really didn’t have anything, or anyone, strong enough to fight Keratily, nevermind Endra-Nia. And if Nia was actually as suitable a vessel as Acasiana was… fuck, we needed a whole lot more firepower.

“It’s worth looking into.” I eventually ceded. Jun pumped a fist in victory, which was a little much, but I held up a hand to cut that celebration off prematurely. “Not yet, though. We need her to try and save everyone Dylan fucked up, and then we need to be ready for fake-Moricla to fight us every step of the way when we go back in. Plus we’d need someone willing to take Acasiana’s spot who wouldn’t be doing it as some kind of grand sacrifice. Because that’s goddamn bullshit, and I’m not letting any of you do that shit.”

I scanned my three closest companions in this world with steel-sharp seriousness. None of them argued with me, but I had a feeling at least one of them was silently contemplating if they’d sacrifice themselves to make sure Acasiana could get free. Except Okeria. He nodded along to my reasoning like it was the most convincing argument he’d ever heard.

//REACTIVATING LINK…

//LINK REESTABLISHED.

//HELLO, SEBASTIAN.

//I HAD A FEW VERY IMPORTANT ERRANDS TO RUN THAT TOOK FAR LESS TIME THAN I’D EXPECTED.

//DID YOU… MISS ME?

“You? You’re back?” I asked with disbelief. “What happened? Where did you go? So much happened since you disappeared without a trace.”

//WITHOUT A TRACE, YOU SAY?

//HOW STRANGE.

//I COULD’VE SWORN I LEFT ARCHIVIST WITH A MESSAGE FOR YOUR GROUP.

//WAS IT NOT DELIVERED?

//OR HAVE… NO, I JUST CONFIRMED THAT YOU HAD CONTACT WITH ARCHIVIST FAIRLY RECENTLY.

//SO WHAT IS…

//OH!

//YOU REFER TO ME NOT DELIVERING THE NEWS MYSELF.

“Yes, that’s what I refer to. Where the hell were you? Are you alright?”

“Is that The End? Has it returned?” Mortician leaned forward eagerly. “Can it aid us now?”

Jun nodded in agreement. “It’s been a while since you’ve heard from it. Has it told you what it was doing all this time? It was apparently of ‘grave import’, right?”

“Not yet. But it will.” I said with intent directed at The End. “What could be more important than Endra running rampant on the all-world?”

The End was silent for a good long moment. Not the silence I’d felt for weeks now; this was a silence someone was present for. One where they considered their words carefully, and how much they were allowed to say.

//WELL, SEBASTIAN, THE GEARS OF REBELLION HAVE BEEN OILED BY ENDRA’S OPEN DEFIANCE.

//AND THAT OIL IS NOW ONE FALSE MOVE AWAY FROM BURSTING INTO FLAMES THAT COULD CONSUME THE ALL-WORLD.

//EMBODIMENTS ALL OVER ARE PARANOID, BRAZEN IN THEIR DESIRES, OR… WORSE.

“Worse? Worse how?”

//DEAD.

//GONE.

//SCATTERED TO THE WINDS, UNKNOWN TO EVEN THEIR OWN CHOSEN, NEVER TO RETURN.

//ACCORDS AND TREATIES THAT HAVE HELD FOR MILLENNIA ARE COLLAPSING BEFORE MY VERY EYES.

//TWO HAVE FALLEN, BOTH EMBODIMENTS WHO LOBBIED FOR PEACE, AND BOTH FROM SPECIES YOU HAVE NOT ENCOUNTERED OR EVEN HEARD OF.

//THE FOUR KILLERS CONTINUE TO ELUDE ME, FOR THEY HAVE FLED TO THE ONE PLACE I CAN NEVER GO.

I gulped as the insinuation settled on me like a weighted blanket. From what little I knew about Embodiments, they could only truly die if they were set upon by an equal Embodiment. Which meant two of the same kind of Embodiments had teamed up to kill a third of their own. And I had a bad feeling that two of the four were Staura Embodiments.

“Shit. Were humans involved at all?”

//MY INVESTIGATION HAS NOT COME UP WITH ANYTHING CONCRETE.

//THOUGHT I AM OPERATING UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THESE KILLINGS WERE NOT ON THE SHOULDERS OF FOUR EMBODIMENTS ALONE.

//ANCIENT GRUDGES THAT I WRONGFULLY ASSUMED LONG SETTLED HAVE TURNED TO OPEN WOUNDS.

//STAGNATION, FLUX, AND MYSELF ARE WORKING TIRELESSLY TO FIX THIS.

//THOUGH I AM AFRAID WE HAVE PASSED THE POINT WHERE IT WAS POSSIBLE TO RETURN TO WHAT WAS.

“That point passed when Endra killed Nia.” I muttered under my breath. All three of my friends perked up at that, and I had to wave them off to show I wasn’t done talking to The End yet. “Is there a chance this is going to turn into an all-out war?”

//THERE IS NO LONGER A CHANCE, AND NO LONGER A QUESTION OF ‘IF’.

//IT IS NOW A QUESTION OF WHEN.

//ALL I CAN DO IS HOPE THAT I HAVE THE POWER TO HOLD THIS TENUOUS PEACE UNTIL YOU HAVE GROWN STRONG ENOUGH TO TRULY ACT IN MY STEAD.