Devick plucked up daisies from the ground and ripped off their petals with the single-minded intensity of a toddler. If anything, her mood was only worsened by the warm midafternoon sun and playful breeze in the scenic valley she had been left to recuperate. Her eyes were blank, but her fingers worked tirelessly.

It was hard to not view the environment as a farce, while also being aware that Randidly Ghosthound was throwing himself into the jaws of a monster to try and change the world. Without her. Maybe without even thinking about her. Devick shuffled sideways and plopped down next to a new concentration of flowers to methodically dismember. She bit her lip, unsure if she was trying to hold back a bout of cackling or vomit.

Devick had been jittery since brushing up against the alternate version of herself. Her chest felt simultaneously tight and hollow. She felt listless, wanting to help somehow with the fight against Elhume and Fiero while also unable to avoid the knowledge that there was nothing that she could do-

“Devick.”

Devick jumped up and whirled around. She was almost disappointed when it turned out not to be an ambush sent to subdue and capture her (she didn’t bother to justify why she would be targeted by such a precision strike, such minor details only detracted from the experience), but instead she blinked at Lowanna, hands clasped in front of her.

“Ahem,” Devick glanced sideways at the very obvious trail of shredded flowers across the meadow. The wind was a constant presence, but it probably would be impossible to hide her culpability. She tucked her hair behind her ears and lifted her chin. “Yes?”

“We need your help,” Lowanna said, keeping her eyes away from the trail of flower corpses.

Devick raised two fists triumphantly. “Of course! Through what hell do I need to walk to save the day this time?”

Lowanna’s lips twitched. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, but the task this time will be quite a bit more modest. We need a representative of the Alpha Cosmos, but also of influences outside of the Alpha Cosmos, to take part in a ritual with Enmya. Considering your connection with Randidly, you will be the perfect metaphor for Enmya’s Phaea to the Alpha Cosmos.”

I want to be more than a metaphor. I want to matter, not just because of my connection to Randidly Ghosthound.

However, Devick closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Molten and cavernous, her insides refused to cease their painful contractions. Malice hissed and pressed her long ears against her skull. When Devick opened her eyes, she did her best to smile. “Sure, I’d be happy to help.”

*****

Alana Donal happily hopped backward as huge chunks of crystalized Aether began to crash down amongst the chaotic and bloody melee on the ground. A husk clacked its teeth together and staggered after her, but a current of Aether buffeted its skeletal limbs back. She released a sigh of relief and glanced around her at the other regrouping members of the Vulpis Squad. Her heart sank.

She had only lost the ring finger and pinky of her left hand when attacked from the side by a particularly ravenous husk, but her heart broke to see about a fifth of the Vulpis Squad had been butchered and left on the ground by the husks and their corrosive images. Most worryingly-

Raymund Ballast wrapped his arm around Heiffal to support him. “Vice-Commander, you-”

“I’ll manage,” Heiffal grunted out the words, even as his image struggled to suppress the husk’s attack still rampaging through his body. The Aether of their images was degenerative and difficult to extract, either from the body or the soul. The flesh of Heiffal’s side and left leg had begun to rot.

Suddenly Randidly stood amongst his damaged and bleeding subordinates. His presence electrified the surrounding air while simultaneously stabilizing the dangerous blasts of Aether. His gaze took all the wounded and missing figures in. Alana could practically feel his mood sinking as he considered them. The Ghosthound’s gaze settled on Heiffal. “Everyone, gather up. You will retire to the Alpha Cosmos, to prepare-”

Raymund Ballast had an affronted expression, but Heiffal cut in first. “We will not. I’m not super experienced with Nether, but us being here matters. So long as we fight with you, you can wield more significance, can’t you? So let us stay.”

Alana offered a subtle nod; she had felt something similar, although she wasn’t sure where her certainty had originated. But when she struggled against the husks, she felt her movements generating a strange current of Nether that flowed directly into Randidly.

Randidly narrowed his eyes as he considered the mortally wounded Heiffal. Something like fury bubbled behind the surface, while he considered his subordinate. “If you stay-”

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As a city-block-sized chunk of Aether crashed to the ground nearby, Alana put her hand on Randidly’s shoulder. She felt him trembling, just slightly. “We don’t have time for this. And also… for better or worse, we can all make our own choices about our Paths. Isn’t that the privilege you’ve fought for?”

The green of Randidly’s eyes was dark and raw. But he looked away quickly and gestured with a hand, unleashing a blast of force to knock away the powerful Aether swirling around them. “...fine. Stay close. And when we get out of here… careful when you look up at the sky.”

His energy followed a second later, gripping the group, empowering and protecting them. Alana saw the warm and healing energy of Yggdrasil spreading out and seeping into them all, doing its best to alleviate the worst of the wounds. They fell into step behind Randidly as he marched forward, avoiding the collapsing chunks of Aether. A few husks skittered out from between the crystal, but Randidly unleashed positively vindictive spear attacks that skewered them and obliterated their images before they could become a problem.

Through the chaos, even Alana noticed the long pause as Randidly glanced through the energy toward where Devick continued to toil. Yet he gritted his teeth and ripped his attention away, leading the group to salvation.

When they reached the edge of the chamber, the chunks of Aether falling grew quite a bit larger. Randidly glanced back over his shoulder. “I’ll make the opening, but DiOrtho, Charlotte, Alana, keep your images up and blasting. The reverberations… will be hard to predict. And when we get back, don’t look too closely at the sky.”

He didn’t even wait for acknowledgment. In the next instant, his body became overwritten by a massive World Tree that lifted its branches and began to dig into the cracks of this place. With a few rumbling movements, the crystal barrier in front of them erupted with all the uncontrolled force of a levy breaking and Randidly stepped up and the whole group raced to follow him, walking on a thin thoroughfare while an avalanche of destruction crashed around them, crystal Aether gobbling into the stalwart roots of Yggdrasil.

Yet around those roots, destructive blasts of force seethed. Alana sucked in a breath, pulling on her drained image, releasing golden-orange light and protecting a third of the column. Her fingers tightened on the shaft of her spear. The group raced forward.

A small whisper of liquid Aether managed to splash past the defensive grasp of the roots and Alana spun her spear and executed her Second Revelation: Struggle. On impact, her spear broke and her image faltered. But luckily the strike bought enough time for Charlotte to shift her image slightly and assist.

In those horrible and chaotic moments of charging through the collapsing crystal Aether, Alana suddenly felt immensely grateful she had forced her body through all of Randidly Ghosthound’s hellish physical training regimen.

It probably only took a minute or two, with Yggdrasil ripping open a highway straight out of their strange environment, but Alana staggered and fell to her knees when energy ceased cracking and crumbling around them. She coughed for several seconds, trying to regain her breath. She might have stayed there longer, kneeling on the burnt stone outside of the crystal mountain range, had she not felt a prickling on the back of her neck. Alana Donal twisted around and looked up-

And her life vanished. Her bible rippled open but all the pages fluttered past completely devoid of words. The orange dust turned grey and-

When a cloak of darkness slammed into place above their heads, Alana gasped and sagged to the ground. Around her, several of the more powerful members of the Order Vulpis seemed similarly ill. It was actually Heiffal, wounded but apparently more coherent than the rest, who liked his lips and asked the question. “What… what the hell was that?”

“A trap I didn’t really expect,” Randidly said with a sigh. He scratched the back of his head.

“What about the… Grand Fates?” Alana’s voice came out as a whisper. She coughed again the clear her airway and tried again. “Did we stop the Actus Suprem?”

“Yes, for now,” Randidly’s lips twisted. The fluttering cloak of darkness above their heads contracted with his mood. “Fiero spirited her away right when things began to break apart. Without the base ritual around her, she cannot wield any more force. But it won’t take long to set it back up… and we have company. Lady Iellaya, to what do we owe this pleasure?”

The Vulpis Squad covered their wounds and straightened as a troop of the Actus Suprem’s personal forces trooped through the dust and small aetherdevils spinning in the wake of the collapse. In tight formation, their collective image remained impervious for the small ambient eddies of energy. At their head stood Lady Iellaya, one-time Commander at the frontlines and Randidly's former superior officer. She nodded solemnly toward Randidly. “I come bearing orders from the Actus Suprem-”

“Surely, you’ve noticed we are in the middle of a rebellion.” Randidly’s smile turned feral.

Lady Iellaya rolled her eyes. “Look, you know I sympathize, but clearly you’ve noticed the larger problems revealed by your actions. Pine will literally end existence if he isn’t handled. The Actus Suprem believes that with the power she can gather through the assembled Grand Fates-”

“For all her talent,” Randidly interrupted. “Devick was consumed by her work. And with the collapsing Aether… I have a hard time believing she contacted you recently. She made preparations for this development beforehand-”

“If you had contacted me before this mad crusade,” Lady Iellaya snapped right back. “I would have let you know that most of her preparations were actually for what comes next.”

Alana watched a new layer of tension settle across Randidly’s shoulders. “And what comes next?”

Before he even finished the question, Randidly straightened his eyes widened and he pivoted to look in a certain direction. Lady Iellaya laughed. “In the words of our Actus Suprem, ‘that asshole Don will start waving his little prick around’. And, based on her predictions, Elhume is gonna come to you with an offer, to help suppress this interloper. Wouldn’t your bargaining position be that much stronger… if you and Devick were on the same side for this part?”