In the wake of Xershi’s display, a group of the most powerful Scrawlers met and conferred about the incident. It was announced that using a Scrawl on another Scrawler was within the bounds of the rules for the Ghosthound Grand Prix; it was specified that there be no limit on what objects be used as vehicles. That freedom was part of the joy of Scrawling.

Even other Scrawlers could be utilized.

Delilah was alarmed by this decision, but rather quickly some of the older students followed up with guidelines to keep the younger students from giving themselves de facto burns or tattoos from failed Scrawl-on-flesh attempts. For now, no one with a Skill Level under two hundred could try the advanced technique. Which essentially meant no one could do it.

Still, regardless of the future consequence this thoughtless action had caused, for now the entire student body worshiped his every word. And while they gazed at him, Xershi’s eyes remained fixed on her. No one stood within ten meters of her in the forum.

“Do you want power, D?” Xershi asked again.

Delilah sucked in a breath. She had seen Xershi and the boy shooting through the sky, too. And she had felt how much she held Vye back in the dangerous bits of exploration of the Danger Zones. And she didn’t want to be afraid of anyone any longer. “Yea. I want power.”

“Well then,” His mouth curled upward into an expression more generous than cruelty and more anticipatory than benevolent. The beginning of a wind stirred around the forum, but Delilah’s heart began to pound. The wind caressed her, tempting her forward. Yet she could already sense that this was just the beginning of a dangerous storm brewing above.

She raised her eyes. The sky was somehow entirely clear. Her skin tingled as her senses simultaneously informed her nothing happened in the sky and also the wind twisted together to form a hammer about to descend.

“Let's begin,” Xershi said, his voice almost crooning. The air currents about Kharon began to shriek as he pulled and the wind came along with him.

*****

Randidly pushed himself out of his sleeping position. Nether gurgled happily in his chest, all the aches in his brainstem had been massaged away, and even the pulsing presence of grief had faded somewhat after his nap.

Randidly wondered how long it would take to fade entirely. But even still, the similar hole Helen had left in him continued to weigh on him. So he didn’t hold out much hope.

He felt both rested and rushed as he took stock of himself. He had made great strides forward to improve himself over the past few days, especially strengthening the density of the Nether he produced and firming up the foundation of his body, as he forced his way to finish the Hierarchy of Burden. His mind, too, had been honed to a complexity of inputs that didn’t come up often in an average person’s life, but Randidly seemed to be inundated with such circumstances that required a parsing of possibilities and incisive insight.

Yet his relationship with his mother remained completely unaddressed and compoundingly difficult, while the Patron of Feathers state continued to deteriorate-

Randidly’s train of thought derailed as a message arrived from Neveah. Now that you are up, you should come to my cottage. I have a surprise that might be amusing to you.

After scratching his cheek, Randidly tossed himself the rest of the way out of bed to head to see Neveah. She wasn’t someone who would send a message out of the blue without having a good justification for it.

“After that…” Randidly spoke out loud, despite being alone, thankfully, in his home. He reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. So many activities had been crammed into this brief and unexpected return to the Alpha Cosmos, but the issue of the Sonara was just beginning. He still needed to pass through the floors guarded by Elhumes forces and reach the upper areas.

Still, that was for later.

Randidly opened a portal and crossed to Neveah’s cottage on the hill. Immediately, he took a deep breath of the cool mountain air. The seasons of Expira had come around again, with autumn once more returning to the rotation with the advent of the Alpha Cosmos. The top of the surrounding mountains had a light dusting of snow.

He felt Neveah’s presence down in the valley, so Randidly walked down the winding dirt path toward her. As he approached, he felt the familiar presence of someone else. His expression soured, but he still trusted Neveah’s invitation. He took several deep breaths, calming himself as he descended.

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In the valley below, he found Neveah on a small bluff with her arms akimbo. She grinned at him. “Don’t give me that look; I thought this would be a certain sort of poetic justice. Look at her, down there.”

Randidly joined Neveah on the bluff. From there, he could observe Fiona toiling alone in a stretch of land, using a small spade to pull up dirt and then sprinkling a few seeds into the opening. Then she patted the ground back into place and moved a half meter to the right. Even from the distance, Randidly could see her fingers were stained with dirt. A freshly created garden stretched to Fiona’s left.

More than that, what softened Randidly’s heart was the layout of the area. A giant pool sat in the center of the area around Fiona, with a tall tree stretching up nearby. Obviously, it wasn’t an indoor area, but this was very clearly a replication of the original Safe Zone in which Randidly had developed in the Dungeon.

“I figured, since you got a tutorial-type setup for the System, she should do the same for Expira,” Neveah said softly. Then she giggled. “The outfit I added as my own flair.”

Randidly couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Fiona wore a straw hat and a very rough-looking set of pants and tunic. It was hard to tell whether the articles were beige, or simply dirty after crouching and planting so many seeds.

Although it had been quite some time since he literally planted anything, Randidly still scanned the lines of crops with a practiced eye. He had learned the skill to survive and then had his methods fine-tuned underneath Nrorce. In addition, his recent growth meant he could gather so much more information regarding the planting process, from the seed of significance that hung with the literal seed, almost like a shadow.

Randidly easily picked out which seeds had been planted first; Fiona’s heavy anger hung with them, slowing their growth and ensuring that when they did break through the soil, they would be gnarled, twisted little things. But as she continued to work, that dark shadow of grief, panic, and fear began to vanish.

Kind as she was, the ground took all of those negative emotions without a single complaint. And to her credit, Fiona continued to allow this transference to happen.

“She came to me directly,” Neveah continued to speak. “She has sharp senses for Nether, more so than the other two, I think. She could feel our connection. After some discussion, her initial attitude softened considerably. She was willing to do almost anything to demonstrate that she was sorry. Apparently, the fact you didn’t kick her out of the Ascension Pact stuck with her. So, I suggested this as a good place to start.”

Randidly grunted, still not sure how he felt about Fiona. Especially in the context of the other negative developments recently, it was tough to keep his sour mood from bleeding into other areas.

Still, she’s working. She’s trying. Randidly watched her for a while, her hunched shoulders and her inane straw hat. That alone is never enough to merit forgiveness. But it’s definitely the best place to start.

Randidly cleared his throat but didn’t comment on Fiona's behavior. “What about the other two? Are they behaving, images intact?”

Neveah waved a hand. “Xershi has weirdly attached himself to Delilah and Kharon Academy. Despite his personality, or maybe because of his immaturity, he’s surprisingly good with kids. They are getting a real crash course in how to manifest and maintain a powerful image. Pullas- after she went to Zone 1 and secretly weakened Fiona’s image plague, now has spent a lot of time with Tatiana. The two are apparently fast friends.”

“Good. Tatiana needs more people she can relax around,” Randidly said casually. Neveah gave him a sharp look, but he shrugged; the reason Tatiana needed those things is because he did, and she enjoyed a certain heightened level of prestige because of her relationship with him. No one understood that benefit better than he did.

Tsk, better not engage her on this, Randidly leaned back and looked up at the sky. She will just point out this is all the more reason to forgive Fiona, someone who I can consider a peer.

Instead of allowing that conversation to pass, Randidly said. “So the image plague has been handled?”

“Essentially, but not totally,” When Randidly quirked his eyebrow, Neveah shrugged. “People are strange. A group has established what is essentially a convent for people to infect themselves. Following the lead of Lucifer, a lot of dissatisfied individuals have tried it, to jumpstart their image development. Apparently facing their taboos is rather motivating. They’ve developed some methods to weaken Fiona’s image, and some personal immunity, so people recover eventually. But for now, the possibility of another outbreak still exists.”

Randidly cracked his neck. “A lot of desperate people, huh.”

“I prefer to think of it as a lot of people who are finally realizing you didn’t exaggerate when you told them how dangerous the Nexus could be,” Neveah responded. “This is a good thing, even if their methods are them playing with fire. Wouldn’t you do the same thing, if you felt an urgent need to grow stronger?”

Randidly couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t feel an urgent need to grow stronger.

While his mind drifted on that troubling realization, Neveah pulled him back. “So? Are you going to forgive Fiona?”

Randidly closed his eyes. “Right now? No, of course not. Give me… a bit more time. Let’s see what sort of crops she can grow first. How about this- I’ll arrange for a dinner with the Ascension Pact members, here at your place if you are willing to host, in twenty-four hours. I’ll make my decision then.”

“So you might not forgive her,” Neveah scowled at him. “Tsk, can’t you feel how contrite she is? Look at that dumb hat? And what, are you just going to kick her out anyway?”

“No,” Randidly turned away. “This is about forgiveness for behaving recklessly on my homeworld. I don’t need to let that go to work with her to climb in the Sonara.”