Despite the strange circumstances in which they met, these two strange men bonded below while the Nexus ended above them.

“Huh,” The Monarch of Karma leaned back and scratched his chin. He felt quite sorry for his new friend after listening to his story. “So you don’t even remember which was real? Which life actually happened?”

“No,” The man named Shal released the word in a giant exhalation.

The two sat on what seemed to be the edge of an island drifting through space, with huge clouds of crystal dust sparking and swirling above them. Their feet hung off the edge of the stone above the abyss, where different forces clashed and growled against each other. The companions of Shal argued nearby as none of their options for escaping the current scenario seemed feasible. Despite the rumbling environment, they seemed to have found a small bubble of peace.

Fate was content to allow the two to have a long talk about their lives.

The Monarch of Karma fidgeted for a few seconds before he worked up the nerve to articulate his question. “Which do you want to be real?”

“Is wanting such an easy thing?” Again, each of Shal’s vocalizations came with a massive release of air from his lungs. All the stress in his body seemed to seep into the circulating oxygen and he spared no bit of effort to try and squeeze the excess out of his body.

“For me. The ease with which I want sometimes scares me,” The Monarch of Karma admitted. Of the two of them, he had spoken less over the last half hour. But that didn’t mean he didn’t feel extremely vulnerable after the talk they had shared. At the moment, he very much tried not to let his mind linger on how nice it would be to have someone he could call friend.

For a brief moment, light flashed in Shal’s eyes. “I do not mean base covetousness that manifests whenever eyes land on the novel. I speak of the want that will allow you to persevere across a lifetime. A sustaining want that shapes your Path and allows you to seize your destiny. However… somewhere along the way, I have lost mine. I am light and hollow; the slightest breeze will sweep me up, now.”

“At the risk of offending you, is that not also a sort of blessing?” The Monarch of Karma spread out his hands. “The lightness is an advantage, of a sort. You have been given a clean state, returned to the beginning. From here… you can discover yourself anew. You can live… without the weight of your previous want.”

“You speak truth. But I am torn by the source of my pain; do I miss the guiding want or do I feel too old to discover another?” Shal shook his head.

The Monarch of Karma watched the glittering waves of broken crystals cycling through the sky above them. The drifting crystals had begun to be pulled into the rotation patterns he had brought with him. Soon, they would gather momentum and create some unpredictable effect. So he stayed silent for now, because he didn’t have the heart to tell Shal that not moving was also a choice. And currents were coming that would sweep them up whether they wanted it or not.

“You do not need to want. You could remain here.” The Monarch of Karma said, unsure exactly who he spoke to.

Shal, again with the same ambiguous point of view, shook his head. The Monarch of Karma nodded in agreement. Lost in the murky reality of existence, both men turned their clumsy thoughts toward what they wanted.

*****

The Actus Suprem wanted to purr in satisfaction, feeling the jagged emotional reverberations as Randidly Ghosthound walked through the abandoned ballroom and ascended to her balcony. He possessed all her favorite emotions for inciting violence. She kept her gaze forward, savoring the feeling, not wanting to spoil the moment by looking at his fate.

His steps echoed. He came closer. He walked out onto the balcony. He was only a few meters away. Up close, his emotions gurgled and seethed even more than she would have hoped. His emotional prowess was nothing short of astonishing.

She had felt the significance of this place when she brushed with the alternate version of herself and was glad she could use that to prickle Randidly. This primordial indignation caused her heart to flutter.

Yet some of that pleasure faded as he entered the balcony, acknowledged her with only a nod of the head, then raised his gaze to examine her consolidation of the gathered Grand Fates while asking an inane question about his subordinates.

When he spoke, his tone was casual. There wasn’t even the slightest bit of formality in his address. “Should I be worried that you separated me from my subordinates? Lady Iellaya gave her word they would not come to harm.”

“Of course, you have no reason to worry.” Devick lied sweetly, carefully observing his emotions. “If anything, I’m doing your subordinates a favor. Just doing some light recruiting. After all the tough fights you’ve put your people through, I just figured they might consider following me for a bit.”

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Her playful words didn’t cause his attention to budge or his emotional sea to bubble; he knew the answer already. All at once, the corners of her mouth turned down. Sometimes, having clever associates ruined a bit of the fun. She considered him. “...did you even come here with the intention to take my side and negotiate with Elhume?”

The lip of Randidly Ghosthound curled upward. “Of course not. I think we both made our stances clear earlier.”

She became rage. A massive hand of madness and rusted chains manifested in the air above her head. A split second later, it would have swung down and started an apocalypse. All unfortunate enough to be within the range of those fingers would have wept and cursed their bad luck. But Devick was able to catch herself before her emotions ran away and unleashed her image. Because if she had concentrated that much of her true power, her Devick Deviation fueled power, she would lose a lot of ground on the Grand Fates she gathered.

Randidly finally looked at her again, quirking an eyebrow up, completely at ease. All his scorn had vanished.

Devick felt needles prickling her skin, up and down her arms, across her shoulder blades, down her neck. He was provoking her. He felt completely confident. He understood the game they played and was willing to play it too. He witnessed her and engaged without flinching.

Devick couldn’t decide if she wanted to rip his face off or lick it, just a little bit.

She settled on an exasperated sigh. “Children truly can be so willful, can’t they? No respect for the carefully laid plans…”

“For better or for worse, we learn from our parents,” He responded in the same clipped tone. He took several steps forward, standing next to her and looking up at the Grand Fates.

More chains led off in every direction from her hands, connecting her to her prey, but the ones in the sky had been overpowered and collected in a glowing nebula. Stone arcs crackled with her rust-colored image, keeping the defeated Grand Fates in line. A half million orbs of pure radiance bounced around between their confines, interacting and producing mesmerizing hues. Emotion and shape mixed freely into a chaotic mess, a curious soup of power that only seemed to intensify its potency as the separate details blended together.

“Despite all the horror you’ve done, it is quite beautiful,” Randidly said quietly.

Devick looked as his profile. She realized she had made a mistake; not only wasn’t he here to negotiate with her, he was here with the intention to kill her. The pang of betrayal took her by surprise, sliding a dagger into her heart and twisting it, around and around and around, until her flesh was more distortion the organ. Yet in the next moment, wild anticipation began bubbling through her body.

She felt grateful she didn’t need to examine her pain too closely. She threw herself past that small hiccup

“You know, it’s quite rude to tease a dance with your killing intent like this… when my hands are already full.” Devick offered her sweetest smile.

Randidly Ghosthound looked at her, her face troubled. “I don’t want to kill you, Devick.”

But I will, if I need to.

He hesitated. “So little of what happened in your life, you chose. I’ve seen it,”

You can make a different choice now.

“Take a step back. Release the Grand Fates. At the very least, I agree that we only have a little bit more time before the other players are going to make their moves in earnest. The Nexus will change today. If you are willing to compromise, we can do this together.”

Abandon your power. Collaborate with me.

Devick felt small next to Randidly, physically. A little bit shorter and slighter, probably a lot lighter. She abruptly wished she hadn’t changed out of her regalia into this dress just as a jest. The flimsy fabric laid bare the differences in their physiques. She felt her pupils begin to tremble as she looked at him. His eyes were softened with sorrow, but he was confident in his own power.

In the end, it came down to the same thing so many others had demanded of her over the year: that she cede control.

She would rather die than do so. She would rather be a monster than do so.

“I might be in the wrong. I might break it all by gripping too tightly… but Randidly Ghosthound, do you know the reason they call me the Actus Suprem? Why I need these Grand Fates to be mine?” Devick let out a high-pitched giggle. Her arms shook. “Because I will never be the powerless one, ever again. What I want, I will control.”

This time, Randidly didn’t open his mouth as sadness softened his eyes. I’m sorry I need to do this.

I’ll never be mad at you for trying to take power for yourself, even from me, Devick’s heart released a low groan.

She blinked rapidly, both fluttering her eyelashes and trying to keep any tears from forming. “So, what now? Surely you wouldn’t just strike a defenseless woman while she-”

“The First Authority: Seize.”

Devick’s image fled before a massive tide of Nether. Her eyes widened in shock, feeling the density of the significance that flowed through Randidly’s body. In just a second, the chains in her hands vanished. Even the reinforced Engraving arcs shuddered underneath the assault, cracking and nearly collapsing.

What had been hers now rested in his larger hands.

While Devick watched, Randidly opened his fingers and showed his palms to the sky. All the Grand Fates she had not yet gathered whispered away, happily retreating back to their original owners.

His eyes were the impenetrable green of the first forest in which an ill-prepared traveler died. “Your hands are now free. Take a stance.”