The guards arrayed themselves in a loose ring, with a feathered woman stepping forward to speak. A serpent with wings was sewn into the arm of her robe. Her voice wavered, betraying her fear. “Sir. you appear to have a fully awakened Nether Core. Is this true?”

Randidly wasn’t sure of the terminology but nodded.

The guards gulped. Those few individuals who were lingering in the plaza to watch the confrontation made themselves scarce. The feathered woman lifted her chin. “Then, according to the current peace treaty between our peoples, you are required to display your status. Attempting to disguise yourself in another affiliation is punishable by-”

“Hmph, my liege is obviously not disguising himself,” The Nether Herald folded his arms and glowered at the woman. When he glanced sideways at Randidly he almost seemed to blush. “Ahem, as you can see, he is simply wearing tight under clothes. You cannot accuse him of disguising himself when he wears no robe.”

The guards did actually seem quite thrown by this face, giving Randidly strange looks once again. The Nether Herald thumped a fist against his chest and continued. “Besides, do you not see that his entire arm is dark? His affiliations are obvious.”

“The arm is grey, not black, and possesses no golden accents, as is required.” The feathered woman shot back. Her eyes went to Randidly. “Please, do not attempt deceit. What is your business here, Nether King?”

“My name is Randidly Ghosthound,” He said, wondering if the name would mean anything in the memory. When their faces remained blank, he felt foolish for even offering it. He hesitated to answer the second question but settled on the easiest answer. He gestured toward the building at the end of the plaza. “And I’m here to listen to the lecture.”

The feathered woman choked at that. “Why would a Nether King be interested in-”

She shook her head to refocus. “That’s not the real issue. We cannot allow you to… hide your affiliations right now. Not with the recent attacks on the border. Tensions is high amongst the populace. Obviously, the treaty guarantees your relative freedom… but for your own safety, I must insist-”

“If you have a proper robe, I will wear it,” Randidly said. That seemed to mollify the feathered woman. He inclined his head forward. “I’ll go inside the hall for now. Bring the robe as soon as you have it.”

Randidly began walking before waiting for an answer. The woman seemed prepared to step up to stop him from departing so easily, but the Nether Herald glowered again at her and she lowered her gaze. In the suddenly vacant plaza, Randdily and the black-robed individual walked across it.

Randidly’s mind spun. A peace treaty, recent attacks, a council, these robes announcing the affiliations of various groups… A lot of information flowed to him, but it wasn’t enough to get a good picture of what happened, nor was it relevant to what he wanted to know. That was part of the reason Randidly wanted to make it into this lecture; he had a feeling that going away with the silver-robed guards would severely reduce the sort of information he could gather.

Besides, the power he could feel from everyone in the area was rather… unimpressive.

“My liege,” The Nether Herald spoke in a quiet voice. “Again, I must apologize for revealing you. Please, do not hold a grudge over this. Better they find out now, rather than discover you in the middle of the lecture. I assume you intend to prove this man a fraud? Beings of Aether could never understand patterns as we can.”

Randidly’s lip curled. This guy just wants to cause a ruckus everywhere we go.

Not seeming to notice Randidly’s mood, the Nether Herald continued to speak. “I’ll go in ahead; perhaps you can have some time to gather information before that woman returns with the robe. I will bother you no longer. Good luck.”

And with that, the tusked Nether Herald strode with confidence through the open doors. Randidly sighed but was somewhat glad he was gone. He followed more sedately up the marble steps, nodding to the wolverine humanoid holding the bell.

But after he had taken several steps past the individual, an awkwardly cleared throat brought him back around. He raised an eyebrow at the wolverine. “What is it?”

“Ah… honored s-s-s-sir…” He coughed slightly. “Your ticket?”

Randidly pressed his lips together; today was clearly not a lucky day for him. Was it too much to ask that he slipped into the body of another individual-

That gave him pause. He checked his pockets and grimaced. Nope, still just me. Or a beggar of the Second Cohort, clothed only in underthings.

He glanced forward through the wide doors to buy himself some time to think. Inside, a party glittered and spun,, seemingly heedless of the announcement of a Nether King that had cleared the plaza previously; they were too caught up in their own business. The babble of conversation probably covered up the Nether Herald's exaggerated shouts. Individuals in ornate and complex robes took flutes of champagne off of trays and grouped up in threes or fours for intense discussion. Strange flags covered with geometric patterns and bold splashes of color unrolled from tall pillars, adding a post-modern pageantry to the gathering.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Randidly examined the attendees closely. Their images weren’t very strong; honestly, the strength of everyone Randidly had sensed in the memory was relatively lackluster. A single one of his images would probably be unstoppable within this place. But they were at least firm and without flaw; these sort of individuals would probably be able to answer the questions about this memory he had.

“I don’t have one,” Randidly said, eyes still forward. “Can I buy a ticket?”

The wolverine coughed again. “U-unforutnately, the lecture is completely booked. There are no spare seats.”

“I can stand-” Randidly said, but then he caught sight of a figure in the press of bodies. Shoulder-length red hair fell in effortless ringlets around her face, her cheekbones high, a mocking smile curving her lips as she slowly pivoted to examine the whole hall. She moved alone, her eyes playful and alight with a manic glee in their crinkled corners. Randidly’s breath caught in his throat.

He knew her not from one place, but two. Even through the soft contours of her lips and nose, he recognized her. For all her other flaws, the same unrelenting determination that had driven her to her current heights was present.

On the other hand, none of the predatory viciousness he had grown to expect from her was present. Her movements were whimsical and swift, like a sailing cloud. A young Devick, probably no older than Randidly had been when the System arrived. Even more slender and youthful than the version he had encountered on the Mountain.

As his eyes widened in recognition, her eyes encountered his across all the distance. The moment lingered. He could see her pupils enlarging as she looked at him. Randidly’s heart backpedaled until it pressed against his ribcage, filled with fear, pity, and a grudging respect. He had too many strange connections to Devick-- she had gotten him through the Mountain, but she had also created Wick. And now she had a strange fixation on him and Alana too.

Come to think of it- Randidly jaw tightened. Could that be why I was led here by such a firm tether? The significance between myself and Devick? Is this memory about her?

Young Devick tilted her head to the side, looking at him with frank curiosity. She wasn’t put off at all by the directness and intensity of his gaze.

“Sir?”

Randidly blinked and glanced backward. Whatever the wolverine saw on his face made him blanch and lower his gaze. “Haha… I’ll handle the ticket, good sir. Please, let’s not make an issue of this. You may enter.”

When Randidly spun forward, Devick was gone, dissipated amongst the crowd. In her absence, he wasn’t sure whether it made him more or less uneasy to not know where she is. Like stepping onto a series of tiles, knowing one concealed a trapdoor that led to a slobbering, homicidal maniac.

The reactions of the party-goers were much the same as those in the plaza had been, due to his lack of robes. However, the relative sophistication of these guests meant that they only gave him a snide glance and then returned to their other engagements, leaving Randidly blessedly alone. Not even the servents approached him with their trays, leaving him to drift to one of the far walls and begin to listen for information the old-fashioned way. Grim Intuition spread to cover most of the surroundings.

While crossing the room, Randidly didn’t see any sign of Devick, but he did see the Nether Herald in his eye-catching black robe, engaged in an intense conversation with two red-robed individuals. Randidly felt almost insulted that the Nether Herald’s robe was less disturbing to these people than his casual clothes.

Either way, he forced ancillary issues from his mind and began to pick apart the surrounding conversation.

“What a fine quiche! Do you suppose they used-”

“Leeks, of course. Although I think fine might be an aspirational term for this chef.”

Randidly’s attention radiated outward, carefully separating and isolating the many voices. The relative skill of the chef in the Second Cohort. He found a new, more promising conversation group.

“For all the Origin Beasts' power, they are sure to soon fall from grace.” Randidly’s attention instantly fixated on those words, trying to gather the responses around the speaker. “They sided with that young upstart fistmaster against the council.”

“Dulumen, not here. We will be seen-”

“He’s hardly an upstart-”

“Oh, dear, did you see that near-naked, hairless being flitting across-”

Randidly began to zero in on his talking targets and push away the other voices..

“-the fist master has been around for as long as the rest of them. He’s just been too busy pursuing personal power to expand his influence. He leads what, a score of followers?”

“Tsk, if that. All to expand the Nexus. Can you imagine? We already have so much conflict now, with the population present within the System. As though our problems would evaporate if we added more bodies.”

“I agree, but you know- Ah, apologies, but you must excuse me. Lord Yufellet is calling for me. But mark my words, The Origin Beasts are not long for this world. Do you see a single individual with a purple robe here? It’s the end of an era.”

Randidly heard footsteps as the one speaker moved. The other inane conversations remained annoyingly present. Shaking his head slightly, he listened for other options in the surroundings. But the conversations in the area concerned themselves either with the refreshment, the upcoming presentation or with uninteresting and personal details of the attendees. Sighing, he looked around for another likely spot on the other side of the hall to listen in on conversations.

What he noticed was a hidden stairwell, tucked in the wall behind a pillar. Pursing his lips, Randidly walked over to it and was about to ascend, but then stepped aside for a group of sky-blue robbed individuals to walk down. About a dozen passed his way, each giving him rather unimpressed looks. Only then did he ascend.

The upper level was a more intimate room, with low lighting and soft azure chairs. However, it appeared entirely deserted. Randidly’s skin tingled from a breeze. Still musing over the things he had heard from listening around, he turned and followed the breeze back to its source without thinking. He passed through a pair of open glass doors to a balcony. The red sun remained hot and squat in the sky.

Randidly walked up to the railing, barely noticing the buildings in front of him. So he was entirely surprised when someone spoke.

“You followed me.”

He pivoted. Young Devick leaned against the wall in the shadow of the building, out of the sun. She walked out and offered him a dazzling smile. “Let me guess… that stare earlier was love at first sight? I simply must applaud your good taste, sir.”