Fiona tried to keep eating to distract herself from the deep sadness she felt creeping into her heart, but it became increasingly difficult. Her fork gradually slowed, her appetite dissipating in Xershi’s wake. She glared down at her half-full plate, willing herself to recapture her zeal.

Or rather, it wasn’t that his departure had caused some new trauma, but no longer could Fiona ignore the yawning chasm that had so long existed inside of herself. The wound from Duulys and his betrayal was still there. She had just gotten lucky for a while. After fucking up on Randidly’s homeworld, the knowledge of how much she valued the group had allowed her to focus. Conveniently, problems kept throwing themselves in the group’s path.

But now-

Randidly stood up abruptly, drawing both Fiona and Pullas’s attention. He grimaced then offered an apologetic smile. “I don’t mean to cut this short, but I think it’s time that I head off on my own as well. You two are going to stay together after? Good. That’s for the best. When I finish up here, I’ll contact you.”

The crack in Fiona’s chest popped just the slightest bit wider by his sudden declaration. She had expected a few more interactions before he rushed off. From the wisps of light wicking away from Pullas’s skin as she glared at Randidly, she had as well. The glasses-wearing woman pressed her hands against the table. “What? You are just going to- without even doing the dishes?”

Randidly blinked at her, then down at the table in front of them, as though the dishes, rightfully, had never even entered into his thought process. His face still had a weird coloring, like he would soon be ill.

Into that space, one of the lurking individuals around the dinner table stepped forward. “Actually, if you would be willing to allow me to try that delicious smelling food, I’d be only too happy to handle-”

“Fuck right off.” Pullas’s eyes were bright with the pale light of death. Her fingers began to singe the wooden table. “This is a private event.”

The stranger closed his mouth and walked rapidly away. Most of the other spectators whispered to each other and retreated.

Pullas wheeled back toward Randidly. “What the hell are you doing? After all that we’ve been through together, you just want to run away, without even… are you going to offer me a handshake too? Is that all we are to you? You went out of your way to cheer me up with that memory when you needed me, then you slip away when you have other business?! That’s a horrible way to live.”

Fiona frowned slightly, caught between them. Rather than seeming upset, Randidly only looked sad. He winced and shook his head. “No, if it were other circumstances, I would want to take more time. However, I really need to begin climbing as soon as possible. Pullas, this isn’t goodbye; when I finish my business, I’ll come find you. I owe it to Fiona to help her find her husband. My boss kidnapped him, after all.”

“Ex-husband,” Fiona mumbled.

“If we aren’t together, how can I protect you?” Pullas hissed at him.

Some part of Randidly folded as she said that, even as Pullas seemed horrified by what had come out of her own mouth. She finally leaned back and fiddled with her glasses. He sighed. “Look, Pullas, you don’t-”

“Nevermind. I didn’t mean to force myself into your life. I, uh, well. Good luck.” Pullas spun away and blushed. She only turned back around when he came up to her and hugged her. They held each other for several seconds, both leaning into the embrace.

Fiona was next, the long-limbed man squeezing her with just the right about of strength. His skin felt so very warm. She scowled into his shoulder; considering how high his Stats were, he probably didn’t even know how much force he was exerting. When he stepped back, his smile was more sure. “I appreciate your understanding. I wish it didn’t need to be this way, but there is something that I need to take care of. The sooner I start, the better.”

With that, he pivoted and moved across the rolling hills toward where Tuthak had indicated the sixtieth floor was. His body blurred that he had vanished in only three seconds. As he left, the last few ties within the Ascension Pact faded away. It was still a connection that would give a general impression of each other, but its valuable function had deactivated.

Fiona looked at Pullas. She put her hands on her hips, trying to ignore her own worries. “What’s with that expression on your face? You are thinking about something foolish.”

“He said he didn’t want it to be this way,” Pullas said slowly. Some golden color had come back to the light radiating from her body due to her image. “So… so even if he feels like he needs to go right now, maybe it doesn’t have to be so soon? Maybe we can help him?”

Fiona blinked. “Are you suggesting… we follow Randidly Ghosthound? Did you miss how quickly he vanished? I think keeping up to him will be… challenging.”

Pullas’s head swinging denial was vehement. “Following? No! What are we, stalkers? But that hesitation… don’t you think maybe he needs help with something? Otherwise, why would he be so torn?”

Fiona understood, deeply and intimately, the pain that Pullas felt right now. With that hanging sense of helplessness, she understood the impulse to squeeze and never let go. But Fiona also knew that Randidly Ghosthound probably didn’t need their help. Sure, Pullas had done the heavy lifting in the final portion of Elhume’s defenses, but Randidly had carried them there. And it had been Randidly that had triggered the transformation in Pullas.

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Maybe that’s why she’s taking it so hard, Fiona’s expression softened. She’s afraid her life will go back to the way it used to be, when the group separates. No wonder Randidly wanted to make sure I stayed with her. That man is surprisingly thoughtful.

Before she could say anything, Pullas stamped her foot in impatience. “Well, maybe I’ll just go on without you, if you don’t want to try and help him. That’s what we do now, right? Go off on our own?”

Without another word, Pullas spun around and sprinted after Randidly. Fiona watched blankly for almost ten seconds, as Pullas got further and further away. Then she sighed and began to follow more sedately. Five minutes of pursuit later, she increased her speed, barely able to sense Pullas’s presence way ahead of her. She stretched out her legs and began to sprint, following the sluggish river toward its source.

To her surprise, it took her almost a half-hour of sprinting to reach the position where Pullas had stopped. At the base of the mountain, a glittering waterfall erupted over a series of small rainbows and large rocks. The waterfall had stretched out to form a pool, with a thin river stretching West to eventually become thick and shallow.

Yet as she approached, Fiona felt something horrible in the air. It crawled down her throat with every breath, like skittering insects. Her skin began to crawl.

Pullas was standing at the edge of the pool. “Is this why you ran away so fast?! Randidly, if you are having trouble controlling your image-”

“Stay back, Pullas,” Randidly said, but his voice was hoarse. “I’m handling this just fine.”

Fiona slowed down, pressing herself up against a low hill to shield herself. With her layered image around her, likely neither of the other two noticed her presence. She peered at Randidly, noticing the chaotic air around him and the distorted and rough images fighting their way outside of his skin.

“Ha! This is fine?” Pullas jabbed her finger at him, dripping in sass.

Fiona began chewing on her lip. If Randidly really was about to go through a dangerous patch with his image, it’s no wonder he wanted to sever the operative portions of the Nether Ritual between us. But our presence won’t make things much easier for him, Pullas…

“This is fine,” Randidly confirmed. The air around him continued to be darkened by flickers of a violent image. Fiona’s discomfort increased the longer she looked at him.

Pullas stared at him, clearly infuriated by the man’s gall and blinded by her own panic. She rolled up her sleeves with deliberate intensity. “This is fine, he says. This is fine. Well if you are fine, you won’t mind if we take some time to spar, will you? I’ve wanted to test myself against you since I found the shape of my own image. What do you think?”

This is a bad idea, Fiona thought.

“That it’s a bad idea,” Randidly almost groaned out the words. But as he spoke, the strange blurry shapes sharpened. The image he called the Grey Creature condensed behind him, although the face continued to be wreathed in an obscuring layer of violent emotions. But its horrifyingly vicious eyes were fixed on Pullas.

“Really? Seems like your image disagrees. It definitely wants to fight.” Pullas said boldly. She condensed her own image of herself as death. She began to walk slowly forward. “So-”

She crossed some sort of invisible boundary, triggering a horrifying sea of vicious emotions to explode outward from Randidly’s body. Even some distance back amongst the hills, Fiona rocked back on her heels as she felt the impact of those emotions rush over her skin. It was different than her own insidious pressure or the determined resolve that Pullas had found for her image: this emotion felt like being a bloody carcass tossed into a sea of piranhas.

Both in terms of depth of emotion and pure antagonism, the image felt like a slap in the face from a barbed flail.

“You…” Pullas straightened and looked at Randidly with something like horror. He remained sitting on the stone beneath the waterfall, his face almost blank despite the vicious bloodthirstiness of his image. “So, you do want to fight.”

Randidly laughed. “No, Pullas. I don’t want to fight. I need… well, maybe I should have been more honest. I need some time to manage my image. I just- I didn’t expect the need to arrive so suddenly. And I was embarrassed by the timing, so I ran away.”

Pullas began moving forward again. “So let me help-”

“You cannot help,” Randidly’s image bared its teeth at her over his shoulder.

Unfortunately, hard denials did not work well on Pullas right now. She crossed another invisible barrier. Her movement ignited those piranhas and filled them with a rabid fury. The emotional force in the air bit at Pullas’s death image. It was too dispersed to do much damage, but it was obvious that she began to feel the pressure. Pullas’s face was white. “You… how can you look at me with such hatred and pain and say I need help? If your image is going wild, I can help suppress it.”

“Pullas, it’s not me or my main image.” Randidly’s mouth turned down at the edges. He leaned forward and pressed his hands against the stone beneath him, water trickling down his shoulders and forearms. “Fine then: let me show you.”

The screening blurriness rippled and spread out from around his face. Fiona’s eyes widened. Because more and more projections of the Grey Creature formed behind the first. But these were wild, feral things, madness given form. More and more seemed to clamber out of the backs of their predecessors, ripping themselves free. Each was an emotional dagger, a discordant note echoing through the area.

Fiona watched the mass of bodes wrestle with each other with the wide-eyed wholeheartedness of an insomniac. They scrambled over the ground, two pouncing on a third and ripping its limbs from its body. Others just stood and shouted, saliva flung from their lips by the noise. Yet most latched onto the main Grey Creature’s back, biting its legs and shoulders. The main image form was dripping gore, even while its face remained stoic.

The true Grey Creature stood tall, a thousand cannibal versions of itself ripping through its flesh and blurring its shape. Fiona wrapped her image more tightly around herself.

The worst part was that they seemed to notice they were no longer hidden. All the rabid Grey Creatures froze. Then their necks twisted, their eyes glowed, their emotions rose and coalesced into an oppressive pressure.

Gradually, Pullas’s image began to lose ground before their combined attention.

“What you are feeling isn’t me at all,” Randidly said. “But an emotional debt that has suddenly come due.”