After a time, Randidly’s body twitched and the resulting movement jerked his consciousness back to wakefulness. He released a breath that had been held in his chest for a long time. It was only after consulting Absolute Timing that he realized he had been dazedly standing and looking at the far wall of the cavern for a few seconds short of thirty-six minutes. But that didn’t mean that the time had been completely wasted.

Sighing, Randidly reached up and rubbed the residue of his tears from his face. For the first time since he had come into this base of Yystrix with the intention to confront her, he was truly calm.

It was a numb calm, perhaps, but his eyes were clear as he looked around.

Neveah, apparently deciding that it was best to leave Randidly to the task of coping with the information dump he just experienced, had actually come to this location with her physical body n while Randidly had been daydreaming. She now was pouring over the softly glowing Engraving than ran the length of the cavern, completely enthralled with the tiny crevices. From what little Randidly could glean through their connection, the entire thing was designed to be an extremely extended lesson in how Aether could be shaped.

Interesting, but just one of many things that Randidly wanted to address…

Shaking his head, Randidly turned away from the emptiness of the cavern and walked up to the coffin that held Yystrix and looked down at the enemy that he had spent so much time hating and fretting about. And even now, Randidly’s instincts urged him to be careful. Because despite all of the evidence to the contrary, all of the emotion in the letter and the information that he could find at this location, it was hard to believe that the Creature, that Yystrix, would just… die like this.

And the story she told-

Randidly sighed; he sensed that today would be a day where he would sigh quite a bit. But instead of dwelling on the empty feeling in his chest, he produced his Philosopher’s Key. Closing his eyes, he moved the key through the air in front of him and felt the threads of karma that were present in this place. Previously, he had been wary of sounding out the karma between them, lest it alert Yystrix that he was planning on moving against him. But now…

Very quickly, Randidly located the familiar tang of his karma with Yystrix. It was very difficult to describe the sensation of what the karma actually was, but as he brushed against it with his key he felt that same frustration and helpless wrath that the Creature had always conjured in his heart. This was the bond that bound them so tightly.

He could clearly feel the karma that led him here, but he also felt another line of karma leading off into the distance, beyond the limits of New Earth. Randidly could build a bridge to that location, but as he moved his key to do so, he noticed two things. The first was the fact that the gleaming karma between Randidly and these places related to the Creature was slowly fading.

The second thing was the whiff of Yystrix’s image was there around that line of karma that led away, as though she had predicted Randidly would search for it. That image just conveyed a deep sense of warning that he wasn’t ready for what lay on the other side and then dispersed.

Randidly slowly lowered the key and opened his eyes. He was too tired to get upset that Yystrix had left an image to prevent him from following the trail of karma, instead resolving to check it later. Besides, I should consult with Lucretia about whether I should read into the fading brilliance of our karma sometime… that can happen before I investigate.

Begrudgingly, Randidly turned to the empty ivory bowl and investigated it more directly. There had clearly been a powerful source of the Creature’s image here in the past, but it wasn’t there now. Randidly investigated with Grim Intuition, Aether Perception, and then finally lifted up the bowl and examined it from every angle. He found nothing. He put the bowl in his interspatial ring, planning on creating some Engravings to investigate further, but it really seemed like whatever item had been left here containing Yystrix’s memories were gone.

And considering that the image traces had been masked by Yystrix herself…

Rather idly, Randidly began walking to the podium. Even now, some of the subject matter and names brought up in her letter were banging around Randidly’s head.

Elhume. Pine. Eden. The Pinnacle. The Nexus. Shallah.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Each term carried quite a bit of weight. And knowing them, Randidly was slowly realizing how much danger he truly was in during his brief brush with Elhume. He had begun to hope during his time at the frontlines whether Elhume was special in terms of his power level, and he felt somewhat relieved that it turned out that Elhume was certainly an exemplary individual.

And now I know that if I want to change the System… he is probably the one I will have to beat. Randidly smiled bitterly as he casually glanced down at the letter. To his surprise, Yystrix’s handwriting was rather lovely to look at. Crystalized Aether… And an image so heavy that being brushed by it shattered my Class-

Suddenly, Randidly’s train of thought halted as he noticed that the letter continued on for two lines after where the oration had stopped. But these letters were shaky and slanted along the side of the page toward the bottom.

As though they had been added later, right near the end of Yyxtrix’s life.

Forgive them, Randidly. They know not what they do. You’ve given the people of Earth basically no context of the stakes with which they are playing…

“Fuck you,” Randidly swore quietly. Immediately, Randidly suspected that this referred to the people that had taken the Creature’s memories. Neveah looked up briefly from her study of the Engraving but quickly returned to it when it was clear that nothing had really happened. Continuing his habit of sighing, Randidly glanced from the hastily scratched writing to the place where the ivory bowl had been sitting.

Is this supposed to be a lesson…? Randidly thought darkly. But honestly, he wasn’t too concerned about the missing memories that the Creature talked about. At least for the foreseeable future, he would have a lot to cope with just from the general information contained in the letter. The details wouldn’t mean much. In addition, Yystrix basically confirmed with the last line that the thieves were people from Earth.

Randidly would be able to find him eventually. And in the meantime, he could come to terms with what this all meant.

Because at the moment, he was still a bit lost.

After shaking himself back to wakefulness again, Randidly turned and looked over toward Neveah. “How is it?”

“...impressive,” Neveah admitted, never taking her eyes off the Engraving in front of her. She gestured to a particularly dense patch of Engraving lines. “The whole cavern is divided into about twenty sections of discrete Engraving methods, which combine to a sophisticated balance across the stairs leading to that platform. I have progressed… perhaps one-tenth of the way through this section, but… I’m basically at the limits of my understanding. This… after we go through all these…”

“Thousands of years of Aether usage boiled down to a lonely tomb.” Randidly sighed again. He glanced around and looked at the large labyrinth of glowing lines stretching in every direction toward the cavern's walls. “Still, definitely valuable. A long term project that will make us better with Aether… heh.”

“More than better,” Neveah said quietly. “One of the best in the entire System.”

Randidly didn’t have anything to say to that. So after confirming that Neveah would be fine here continuing to study, he turned and looked one last time at Yystrix wearing Lyra’s face. The request for an epitaph lay heavy across his heart. But for now, he made no sort of effort to transform this place.

But maybe it would be nice to make this into a garden after they had mastered the Engravings that Yystrix had left for them here.

As Randidly turned and began to walk out of the tomb, a strange line from the Yystrix’s letter appeared in his mind. I know why I hate you so… it’s because you possess the same sort of fire as my husband.

Randidly shivered as he avoided thinking too deeply about what that meant. Too many things had happened at once and he needed some time and space to settle everything.

Luckily, just as he was exiting the strange architecture of the tomb and walking into the jungle, he received a message from Tatiana that was the perfect distraction.

I’ve seen the tiles you made. They… will definitely be influential. But are you sure that you want to do this?

It was almost fascinating, Randidly reflected, how different his attitude suddenly was as he typed out his reply to Tatiana’s query. Whereas before the issues regarding his birthday had been such a chore to muster up the willingness to engage, now they seemed like a welcome respite from the headache-inducing amount of knowledge he had just gained. Yes. Visualization will help people understand.

Randidly could practically hear Tatiana’s hesitation in her response. If you think it is best. But still, I would recommend that we do not cover the entire ballroom with the tiles then. We can make islands of… normalcy. And I think it will give you a chance to demonstrate your point with more of a dramatic flair.

That seemed reasonable, so Randidly quickly agreed and he and Tatiana hashed out the details. With his Philosopher’s Key, he opened up a portal and crossed back from the island of Yystrix’s tomb to his mist-shrouded island. By then, Tatiana had shifted topics.

Also, I think it’s time we start talking about security for the event. Even if we don’t need it with you present, it is often reassuring for people to see.