Rieren didn’t waste much time with pleasantries or anything of the sort. Silomene didn’t look like she had time for social niceties either. They exchanged the briefest of greetings before Rieren explained everything she had told her last guests.

“He’s being… controlled?” Silomene looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Do you know how long it’s been like this?”

“I cannot say for certain. Even if he was under the Abyssal’s influence before, I doubt the Puppeteer acted before the incident with the Clanmistress.”

Silomene was ultimately unable to bear the news well. She excused herself for a moment, then got to her feet and paced about the area, looking like she would have torn her hair off her head if there hadn’t been anyone in the vicinity.

Rieren felt for her, but she waited patiently for her friend to deal with her feelings as she saw fit. Eventually, Silomene returned, looking grim as before but much more in control.

“Apologies,” Silomene said. The edge of exhaustion was all too evident in her voice, but she said nothing particularly worrying. “That was unseemly of me.”

“A little bit. But you do not have to apologize for it. We have all do rather unseemly things once in a while.”

“Have you truly?”

Rieren had to think for a moment. She was certain she had done some things that others would be happy to call unseemly, though she herself wouldn’t term any so in this timeline. In the previous however… “Yes. I certainly have. But anyway, what do you intend to do now?”

“Find him, of course.”

Rieren nodded, expecting as much. “Do you have a good approximation of where he might be?”

“In truth? There are a few too many places where he could have gone, if he is still in control of himself. If he isn’t and the Gravemark Puppeteer is fully controlling him, then I have no idea at all.” Silomene huffed. “But I will choose to believe there is some vestige of Lord Mercion that is yet in control, and so, I will search every single location he could go.”

Rieren didn’t ask for the exact locations yet. As Silomene said, there were likely too many and Rieren didn’t have the time to go looking through all of them. She had to get through her cultivation first. If Mercion was out of her reach entirely, then she needed to return to the Aether and find a different means of stopping the imminent shower of meteors.

But that was where Silomene came in. She would know where to look, even better than the Clanmistress or anyone from there.

As such, Rieren would have to put her faith in others for one of her plans. In the meantime, she would have to do her best to construct another and carry it out to the best of her abilities.

“There is no time to waste.” True to her words, Silomene shot to her feet. “I will let you know as soon as I find any sign of him.”

“Thank you. I am certain we will find the sword I need in his position. After all, as the anchor to the Aether, it controls exactly where the Aetherians will land.” The Gravemark Puppeteer would be unwilling to relinquish that sort of power. “But in case that is not an option any longer, for whatever reason, I believe I might find other workarounds.”

“May fortune favour your steps, then. For all of us.”

Rieren and Silomene exchanged quick farewells before the other woman left. She waited a while to let her breathing settle and her inner harmony return to her spirit. Then she resumed her cultivation when she was finally alone.

Free from any further distractions, Rieren could finally shut off the outside world and turn her full concentration onto the enlightenment awaiting her. The recent conversations had given her the inkling she needed about which direction her understanding needed to pursue, about the specific enlightenment as yet awaiting her.

All their discussions had revolved, in one way or another, around hope. Or perhaps, going even deeper, into desire. They all wanted something. They had wishes they would want to see actualized, dreams that would perhaps one day come true. So many wants.

The survival of the Shatterlands, the continued lives of their friends and families, their own prosperities rising through the trials and tribulations they were facing. These were some of the overarching, common desires that wound through them all.

Conversely, the monsters wanted the opposite for the humans. Or perhaps, it was better to state that they wanted the same for themselves. A home that survived, lives where they could flourish instead of simply living on through another day. In an overarching sense, they wanted nothing overly different from the humans.

Except, they wanted exactly what the humans had. Neither side had any wish to share, nor anything but sheer hatred for the other. Despite—or perhaps because of—their similar goals, they were now in conflict.

And that was what Rieren had been missing for so long.

She could feel the realization hitting like a blooming epiphany. Her mind was a flower opening and turning to face its sun.

The conflict of desires could be applied to the Aetherians as well. They wanted what the humans already possessed too. A world to live on, a place where lives could be built, a new stage in whatever strange metamorphosis Aetherians went through. There was nothing inherently unjust or unreasonable in any of that.

But this world was limited. There might have been enough space, if every single person was respectful and open, while the monsters themselves would be fine with keeping to their designated regions.

That wasn’t the case, however. The monsters were rapacious. The humans were unwilling to even contemplate sharing their homelands with the Abyssals and the Aetherians.

Perhaps, if Rieren really tried, she would be able to find the reason why it was so. If she dug into the memories of the world, if she found out the truths that most others had forgotten and no longer cared about, she might be able to determine why such animosity existed between the monsters and the humans. With the help of Batcat, it wouldn’t be impossible.

But then, it didn’t matter. The truth was that this enmity that ran so deep wasn’t going to be extinguished by anything, no matter what truth Rieren dug up. The real, unshakeable truth was that the same desires they all shared were what was in conflict here.

That was when Rieren finally achieved her last enlightenment.

She had her eyes closed for hours on end, meditating and focusing on her ability to transcend through time and space, to rise beyond the constraints of the Mortal Realm. And then she felt it.

A creeping, prickling sensation enveloped Rieren’s skin, though in a strange, liquid way, as though tiny droplets of water were constantly plopping on her exposed flesh. It felt distantly familiar, as though she had gone through this before. When she opened her eyes, it was obvious why.

She was back in the Aether.

There was a strong difference this time, however. Rieren hadn’t ended up on one of planetoids that filled the Aether’s cosmos, a position normally occupied by an Aetherian. Instead, she was floating right in the middle of the two central celestial bodies. On one side was the gleaming star that formed the central hub of the Aether, on the other was the Mortal Realm.

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Rieren looked around. Even as she floated in the middle of the space, the star’s surface erupted in bursting boils that released a shower of meteors towards her world.

Her heart stopped for a moment in her chest in fear that she was too late. But no. There weren’t enough meteors in that shower to cause untold devastation across the Shatterlands. If left unchecked, they could certainly wreak a great deal of havoc. However, the cultivators and defenders of the realm would be able to thwart them well enough. Most of them, at least.

The Aetherians knew just how many they would have to send to overcome the defences. This wasn’t their final push. Rieren still had a little bit of time before that occurred. Now, she just needed to find a way to prevent it from happening.

It was good that she could move here. All Rieren had to do was imagine floating off in a certain direction and she would find herself magically teleported there in the blink of an eye.

This was helpful in reaching the friendly Aetherian she had met on her previous trips here.

As Rieren moved away from the gap between the star and the planet, she found herself arriving closer to where all the planetoids were being drawn just before they entered the star itself. There, the lead planetoid rocketing towards the star’s surface was that of the Aetherian she had come to know.

Like Kervantes, he didn’t have much of an expression from which to judge his feelings. However, he made it known vociferously through other means.

“Ahoy there, friend,” he yelled over the cosmos. “Surprising to see you here, of all places again.”

He sounded more curious than surprised, truth be told. Though, that made Rieren wonder how exactly they were speaking. The cosmos was an airless void, and sound needed some sort of medium through which to travel.

Maybe they weren’t even speaking as most would consider it. Perhaps it was telepathy. Rieren certainly couldn’t feel her mouth moving when she answered, “It seems we are ever fated to meet.”

“That we are! Strange, is it not?”

“Quite.” Rieren looked behind her. When she turned back, the Aetherian had grown larger as his planetoid approached. “Are you headed into the main Aether, then?”

“I am. I hope you have not been ejected from it. I admit I am quite curious about your lack of a home.”

“Is it truly a home if you are to leave it once you have passed on to the other world?”

The Aetherian paused to consider her words. “I suppose you have me there,” it said, rather begrudgingly.

“I am also curious about a few matters. What say you that we exchange some answers?”

Rieren was trying to sound placid and calm, almost nonchalant, though she was certainly not appreciating just how fast the Aetherian’s planetoid was moving towards her. There wasn’t much time before he would pass her, and then her ability to influence the events in the Aether would be even lower than it already was.

“Certainly,” the Aetherian said, agreeable as ever. “I will let you go first. What do you wish to know?”

“How kind of you. I want to know if there is a way for you to control where you end up.”

“Control… as in the trajectory of my meteoric home?”

“Well, either that, or if you have any say over where you end up. What I mean to ask is if you had any disinclination against going to the realm set for you, would you be able to change it?”

“Such a strange inquiry.” The Aetherian was looking at her as though he had never seen her before. “Our choice is collective. We decide altogether on where we should go. As such, there is never a need for us to consider a different destination.”

“But what if the destination is harmful to you? What if, far from being the beginning of a new life, it only leads to your early demise.”

“Then we will be the ones to prove it. Our failure will inform others and inform the collective will. If it is deemed by enough of us that the destination is fraught with peril, then we will revisit our earlier decision.”

“Collective will…” Rieren didn’t like the sound of that all, but she did her best to keep her distaste for it out of her words. “Can you make no individual judgment? What if there was one or more among you who had no wish to depart to the other realm?”

“Then they can do their best to abstain from joining the orbit. To answer your ultimate query—yes, we have a certain degree of control as to whether or not we will, as individuals, enter the world that has been set and prepared for us. I assume you are not interested in hearing that such a thing rarely occurs, for we have great faith in each other, so I shall refrain.”

A part of Rieren was interested in it. She would have liked to know how exactly the Aetherians decided together about these matters. But this Aetherian’s planetoid had almost reached her. Distance might not truly matter in whatever form of communication they were utilizing now, but it wouldn’t be long before it hit the star.

After that, it was anyone’s guess as to whether they could continue to talk as they’d been doing all this time.

“Then,” Rieren said. “Will you believe me if I told you that your best interests lay in not going to your current destination?”

The Aetherian froze. “What?”

Rieren wished she could take a deep breath and make what she was about to say next sound sensible. Unfortunately, in her spiritual state in the Aether, no such thing as breaths existed.

Regardless, Rieren took the plunge and told the Aetherian everything. She explained that the monsters’ destination was the already occupied and hotly contested Mortal Realm, where several of its kind had already perished. She told him about gods, about the people trying to survive, even about how the whole world had been entirely ravaged in the previous timeline.

She finished by the time the Aetherian’s planetoid reached her location. It sailed on past, silent in contemplation. Despite the lack of a corporeal body, Rieren was certain her heart clenched.

She might just have failed.

An anchor seemed to be sinking deeper in Rieren’s formless guts. Now that the Aetherian finally understood that he had been conversing with not a fellow Aetherian, but an original denizen of the Mortal Realm, had it finally decided to forsake her? And if she had lost the only link to this cosmos that she could truly influence, what was she to do now?

Except, the Aetherian’s little flying home seemed to be coming to a pause. Rieren watched, rooted to her spot, as the meteoric forward thrust of the little planetoid slowed to a stop.

Then it began reversing to her exact location.

“Your tale is… incredible,” the Aetherian said. “How many of my kind have already been lost to your realm?”

Rieren herself had taken on a few, but she decided against going into details. “Quite a few. I do not know what has happened over the entirety of my world, but even in the little spaces I have been to, I have encountered or heard of at least half a dozen.”

“I see. That they have neglected to inform us of such a thing is troubling.”

“Were I you, I would not trust anyone who has decided that the Mortal Realm must be your destination.”

“It would seem I must, I suppose.” The Aetherian stared past her. Or at least, it gave the sense that it was now facing the direction it had arrived. “I must inform the others. Though, I can’t guarantee any success in the matter.”

“You do not need to be successful. Simply hold them off for a moment. That will be enough.”

“Then I will get going.” The Aetherian was about to move off, but his little planetoid was still paused before Rieren. “Thank you for warning us.”

“I do not do it out of the goodness of my heart. I only seek to prevent it from occurring as frequently as it has.”

“Be that as it may. You have been a kind guest nevertheless… I don’t think I ever asked your name.”

For a brief moment, she hesitated. But then, surprising though it had been, this Aetherian had proven himself worthy of being trusted. “I am called Rieren.”

“Rieren. What a strange name. If I had asked earlier, I might have deduced the truth long ago.” There was the wryest note of humour in his voice, but it turned serious before Rieren could reply. “I am called Higher Aetherian Demargo. Perhaps we will meet again in another world.”

She realized that it was his way of saying farewell. He was smart enough to understand that Rieren wouldn’t be voluntarily returning to the Aether, and even if she did, Demargo would likely move on to some other area of the cosmos that made up the Aether, some other location where he could enter a new world.

Rieren nodded. “Farewell, and may fortune favour your steps, Demargo. I am grateful for your assistance in the matter. And grateful that you chose to believe me.”

“How do you believe we are communicating?” There was a hint of a smile in his words. “In the Aether, we do not control our words and pick which ones we choose to utter. We transfer our thoughts across space as our main means of communication. It is quite difficult for anyone to hide anything, especially those who are not versed in the ways of the Aether.”

Rieren’s heart skipped a beat. Sincere and kind though Demargo seemed, she didn’t like knowing that she had never been in proper control of what she had chosen to share with the Aetherian. “So… you knew all along I wasn’t really an Aetherian?”

“No. I still believed you were one whose form hadn’t annealed yet. Like me.”

“And yet you can tell I speak the truth now?”

“Yes, because you decided to share it with me. I believe you had no thoughts regarding your form at all, or if you did, you transmitted nothing. I admit, one can hide things by choosing not to project any thoughts about a certain subject at all.”

Rieren’s mind was having a bit of difficulty wrapping around what exactly the Aetherian meant. She supposed that, because her thoughts about her form hadn’t been front and centre when speaking with him, he had never been able to deduce the truth about it.

But the point was that he did believe her. That was all that mattered.

Rieren felt a strong tug in the pit of her guts. It would seem her time in the Aether was coming to an end. How convenient. “I must take my leave as well,” she said. “Thank you again.”

“Of course.” The Aetherian began his rearward flight in the direction he had flown in. “May you succeed in the rest of your endeavours.”

“The same to you.”

Rieren’s presence in the Aether faded. The crawling sensation of power upon her skin started evaporating, and as she blinked away the darkness shrouding her sight, she slowly found herself back in the Mortal Realm. Back upon the mountain where she had finished progressing through the Enlightened Realm.

Back in the presence of Batcat.