“What the hell was that?” Mae Myrna stood at the edges of the Hollow Plains and trembled as she looked at Elhume. Her armor and pants were splattered with dried blood.

He rubbed his knuckles. While the other Patrons guarded the Arbiter and Duo vanished to ‘eliminate any pursuit’, he and Mae had moved off to the side. It was the first moment of peace they had since charging past the edges of Wyndaos.

From the wrathful rotation of Mae’s energy since they had slaughtered their way through trifling Nether Warriors and found the Arbiter waiting alone in the core area of Wyndaos, Elhume had known a comeuppance was coming. He forced out a breath. His knuckles ached, but they were from the clenching of the approach; he hadn’t been close to injuring himself in the raid. “We succeeded in capturing the Nether Arbiter. There must have been some sort of other troop movements, because their forces were so depleted. But considering the rising tensions between the two people-”

“We slaughtered our merry way through a host of toddlers and feeble elders.” Mae countered in an iron-girded voice. Her eyes flashed. “After hearing so much about the strength of the Nether… for the Arbiter to meekly follow us… Ignoring the queer developments is an exercise in idiocy. If the equation doesn’t seem balanced, we are missing variables. Elhume, you are not fool enough to just ignore this.”

Elhume frowned. He looked out to the hills rising in the horizon, a welcome relief of a geographic vista out past the edges of the Hollow Plains. He continued to rub his thumb across the knuckles of his pointer finger. The ache there hadn’t abated in the slightest. “The dramatic confrontation we expected didn’t come, sure. But why are we lamenting the ease of accomplishing the mission?”

“You aren’t even listening,” Mae tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Yes, I get that you are excited you are closer than ever before to a possible chance to help Pine. But focus on what has been happening. Wyndaos’s lack of defenses and our coincidental attack don’t seem to be the result of chance. Then you have this mysterious Cult of the Savior, who are excessively ominous in their words and deeds, by the way, showing up and offering this plan, just when you are feeling most desperate… And the Arbiter following us without comment? And don’t get me started on this Duo piece of shit-”

At that, Elhume looked up sharply. “At least that, you can’t blame on other people; Duo was known to the Patron of the Borrowed.”

“Fiero has the brains and guile of a loyal hound staggering home after leading his master to a boar and getting to slurp up the offal.” Mae snapped. “I’m sure you’ve seen the way he moons after me. Yes, he provided the connection, but with how frantic things have been- Elhume, I’m starting to suspect this whole thing was in the works for a lot longer than makes me comfortable. Despite how powerful and fearsome a reputation it built in the wasteland, Duo accepted without any requirements but us each owing it a favor. And let’s not forget that, despite our individual motivations, what we just did definitely set off a war between Aether and Nether.”

“A war was coming anyway,” Finally starting to get irritated, Elhume turned and glared at Mae. His hands found the ease position of clenching.“And honestly, I’m impressed you admit the way the Patron of the Borrowed looks at you; you have seemed to enjoy the attention, well enough.”

Mae’s jaw dropped. She blanched. “...what?”

It was like one of those strange, feedback-less moments. Of mental freefal. Like Elhume had dozed and felt like he was reaching out with a foot… only to find nothing there. His stomach lurched as he watched the hurt and shame on her face.

Feeling suddenly awkward, Elhume twisted away. His thumb went back to worrying at his knuckles. “... that came out wrong. Anyway, what did you expect me to do? The higher-tiered Nether Warriors might not have been present in Wyndaos, but we still-”

“I expected you not to just shirk responsibility.” Mae reached over and grabbed his hand. Her eyes were wide and trembling. “But I refuse to allow you to sail blithely by the bile you just spat at me. You think I like his attention? When we’ve had this discussion, when the whole reason I’m not with the man I truly have feelings for is he hasn’t chosen me.”

Bitterly, still unable to look at Mae, Elhume tugged his hand away. “I have a wife.”

“Perhaps then our comments should be kept to the situation at hand, rather than retreading hypotheticals,” Mae growled. “I would point out how convenient this complicated situation has become. A mysterious force shows up with the information you need? The defenses of Wyndaos are away on other business and we slaughter their children and elderly? Duo agrees to help us on our mission? The Arbiter comes along quietly without a fight, despite being the most powerful Nether individual in existence?”

Elhume frowned. “You can’t have it both ways. It cannot be part of this sinister plan to both have Duo accompany us and then arrange for Wyndaos’s defenses to be gone. If the higher Tiered Nether Warriors and Heralds were handled, his presence was unnecessary. You are being paranoid.”

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“Maybe they just wanted to have their bases covered.” Mae threw her hands up into the air. “Yet we dance around the most damning fact: we cut down hundreds of individuals who fled from us. I don’t trust this, Elhume. And considering what we did in Wyndaos… Perhaps Nether King Hungry Eye was correct in refusing to be part of this-”

“Mae, if you don’t want to help me save my son, no one is forcing you. But he is… he is everything about me that is good.” Elhume forced down all the conflicted emotions in his chest. He bound them tighter and tighter, folding them over until he created a fist. Finally, he could meet Mae’s eyes. “Yea, this situation is getting hectic, but its my chance. It might be… unfortunate, but all of this is necessary.”

“You truly believe personally igniting the sparks of war to be necessary?”

Elhume pressed his lips together. He kept looking at her. “If there is not a distraction, other forces will sense our attempts to return to the place where Pine sleeps. They might interfere.”

“Millions dying as a distraction is acceptable to you,” Her words didn’t contain a question, just a dull wonder.

Still, Elhume answered in a harsh voice. “I cannot take any more risks. The things that the Cult of the Savior’s Prophet said-”

“I’m leaving, Elhume.” Mae Myrna turned away. “The fact you would consider these methods… just proves you are weak. It isn’t right, what we do, no matter how important your son is. If you refuse to see it… I will force you to look. I will become strong and show you how a world should be created with my own hands.”

Elhume watched her go, suddenly able to tear his gaze away. He felt a strong impulse to throw caustic words at her back but held his tongue. When she had departed, he felt exhausted and alone. He continued to rub his thumb across his knuckles, brooding.

All this for Pine. Everything for him…

Anything for him.

*****

Neveah paused in her careful clay-shaping and looked up at the sky. A wave of ink seeped into the environment from the horizon. Clouds roiled and tumbled through the air, churned up by a rising tide of significance that moved across the sky. At first she turned and looked with expectations at the dome Randidly had created: perhaps this massive display would herald the reveal of his new Grey Creature image.

Yet the momentum in the sky built and built, to the point that the very air trembled and Neveah grew pale with worry. Through her connection to Randidly, she could feel him stop in whatever training endeavor and examine the sky as well, pulled out by the violence of the movements of Nether. His Nether Core began to strain to support the memory world. Space and time around them began to stutter and shift.

Below, a newly Classed Devick struggled through the obstacle course created for her by Lucretia. The young woman continued to struggle, her movements becoming increasingly choppy. As a denizen of the memory, the instability didn’t appear to even affect her.

Lucretia materialized at Neveah’s side, her hair fluttering and splintering as the memory strained. “What the hell is that?”

“It seems like our dabbling in the memory has finally caused a divisive shift from the original timeline to earn the memory’s ire,” Neveah mused. She could feel the Nether Core on which this entire projection balanced, fueled by the energy and structure of the upper Sonora, sure, but now sustained in this different direction by Randidly. The whole trapeze began to tremble as the course was very noticeably altered as it struggled to cope with its bulk. “However… there are no specific threads within the response. It’s almost as if-”

A massive lurch ripped the world in half. Neveah’s expression fell, as color leached out of the world and left them suspended in monochrome. Emotion animated the destructive wave of Nether, swirling around a dense heart or rejection. This Nether came purposefully, without any true sapience but seeking to shatter this deviation.

In response, she felt a rising flow of pure Nether from Randidly. A dense river of energy curled out of his body and shot up to join the seething currents in the sky. For a brief moment, she felt the manifestation of his new image turning its attention to the threat: a murky darkness filled with the fluttering of raven feathers and the whisper of scales, while two lighthouse-esque emerald eyes burned in the depths.

Neveah couldn’t help but shiver as she felt the image peer into the chaotic degeneration of Nether fraying through the memory, despite the repeated reinforcements that had dragged it to this point. Randidly’s mental energy depleted so quickly that Neveah saw the dome shrink and flicker.

There was a yawning moment of tension, then Randidly’s Grey Creature closed its eyes. Its work was done.

The Nether river unleashed exploded in every direction, a thousand individual threads of Nether that sought the weaknesses in the shattering memory and worked their way through the edges. With neat strokes, Randidly sewed the fracturing memory back together. His Nether fused itself to the memory, keeping the entire operation stable.

Almost as though it sensed his intentions, the wild Nether gathered itself up into a bestial form centered around the heart or rejection and solidified. It condensed claws of Nether and ripped flaws in the universe, causing more and more color to seep out. The stuttering around Neveah intensified.

Very obviously, the Nether of this memory did not want the deviation to continue.

Without much hurry, more threads of Nether flowed out of Randidly and started stitching up these flaws as well. In a roar that squeezed at Neveah’s heart, the Nether stretched itself into a larger, twisted version. It grew another six limbs that flailed across the sky, ripping its way through the fabric of reality.

Above the almost completely lackluster Nether Dome, a seed of darkness blossomed. The effort it took for even such a minor manifestation was obvious, but from the depths of the shade, a bright emerald eye opened.

The violent Nether didn’t even get the chance to scream. The focus of the new Grey Creature pierced through its chest. The central animus vanished; the Nether continued straining the memory with its presence, but it no longer actively damaged the sky.

Neveah released a small breath. Gradually, the memory recovered. Below, Devick continued to struggle through the course. Truly… I’m looking forward to what your new image shows us, Randidly.