With an exhausted drag, Runar climbed up the stone stairs in front of his office, pushing open the door with a yawn. He stepped inside, seeing Ryan, Silvia and Modak huddled up around the coffee table.

"Hm? What're you guys doing?" he asked, curiously taking a step closer. And what he saw did surprise him. It was Maximus. Twice. Of course, there was the original Maximus, his silver armour with red highlight plates, just as he looked before Runar left. But right in front of him, mirroring that Maximus perfectly both in form and motion, stood an ink black counterpart.

"Back already?" Ryan asked, surprised. He looked down at his phone, checking the time, "That was barely thirty minutes... it took us like ten to get down here."

"As I said, there was just something small to take care of," Runar explained, squatting down next to the table, "So, exactly why are the Sprites copying Maximus?"

Modak immediately snapped his head toward him, "So they really are Sprites?!"

"Mhm. They're made completely from mana. Like magic that has come to life," Runar smiled lightly, looking at the small black figure, "They're actually pretty unique in some other ways. They both do and don't have an individual, sapient experience. When Sprites are physically close, they synchronize with each other, sharing their minds and experiences with each other. But each one undeniably is an individual."

Ryan glanced back at the Sprites. They had all fallen apart into that black mist and formed a single larger body that looked exactly like Maximus, "Hmm... so are they one of the people that you're trying to help integrate?"

Runar shrugged, "We're working on it. Though in their case, similar to elementals, we're less trying to help them be protected on a societal and legal level. Basically, we want them to be given the same rights and protections as Spirits."

"... How would I come into all of this? How would I... help?" Ryan asked, looking up at Runar. He thought about it for a moment, but didn't seem to have an answer ready.

"Honestly? However you want to, I guess. I mean, your main task will always be centred around Spirits who don't have the ability to form their own bodies, but beyond that, you can try and become part of any area of the Aglecard family," Runar explained, and Ryan seemed to take a moment to think about it. But that moment of silence was perfect for Silvia to ask something.

"Right, about that," she started, her curiosity practically oozing out from every pore as her ears twitched to her heartbeat, "How come some spirits can't form their own bodies? Plus, why does Maximus have a 'class'? I mean, Spirits can awaken and all, I know that, but that's different from this, isn't it?"

Runar looked at the elf, sighing lightly. He knew this question was coming, but he knew that it wasn't what they wanted to hear, "We don't know. We have some guesses, but no proof."

Silvia's expression immediately drooped, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Runar chuckled, looking over at Maximus, "We have two main theories, though. One, all of those spirits without their own bodies are conceptual spirits, but their concept is system-adjacent. So, Maximus wouldn't be a 'Spirit of Knighthood', but rather-"

"A 'Spirit of the Knight Class'?" Ryan finished the sentence, and Runar quickly nodded his head.

"Exactly. There's a lot of evidence to support it, but not totally. For example, what does the Knight class have to do with 'roots' or 'plants'?"

Immediately, everyone looked at Maximus' body, even the Sprites that had come together to look at him. Maximus himself glanced at his arm, as well. He was overgrown with roots, and rather, his core was actively held in place by those roots. That was totally unrelated to the concept of 'Knights'.

Modak turned back to his friend's uncle, "So then what's the other theory?"

Runar hesitated for a moment, though he figured there was no need to hide this, "That there are spirits that simply don't have the ability to form bodies on their own. The Spirit Keeper class was created as a reaction to that phenomenon, and when a spirit links with the keeper, they're awakened into a class adjacent to their concept."

"Excuse me?" Ryan let out in disbelief, "You think that the Spirit Keeper class can force others to awaken?"

Runar sighed, shaking his head, "No, it's just a theory. And it's not 'others', it's just spirits."

"Does it happen to other spirits? Ones that already have a body?"

"No idea. A spirit that has a body already never joined the keeper. I don't know if it's impossible or something, but... it hasn't happened yet, in a thousand years, so I wouldn't count on it happening anytime soon," Runar explained, before letting out a loud groan, "Listen, I can keep telling you all this stuff, but..."

Ryan looked at his uncle. He knew what Runar was saying, "I need to decide first?"

"Yeah. Listen, I know it's-"

"I'm joining. I'm a part of this now," Ryan immediately said, and Runar pulled back, startled.

He looked at his nephew hesitantly, "Are you sure? You don't need more time to decide?"

"I could push this decision back a year, but my choice will end up being the same."

Runar let out a long sigh, closing his eyes in contemplation, "Fine," he stood back up, his hands on his hips, "In that case... I'm going to need a bit of time. You two sticking around as well?"

Silvia and Modak didn't hesitate to nod their heads, "Of course! If Ryan's doing this, then so are we!"

With a click of his tongue, Runar walked over to his desk, "Well, easier said than done. You two will just have to be considered Ryan's aides for the time being, the Spirit Keeper always has a couple of those."

"Aides? Like... assistants?" Ryan asked.

"Uhh... basically, I guess. But it's just an official thing to get the elders off my back about this," Runar explained, pulling open drawers on his desk to look for something. Finally, he grabbed what looked like two large coins with a thumb's diameter. He used his fountain pen to write some runes on each of them, glancing at both Silvia and Modak every once in a while, and then threw each of them one of the coins.

"So... what is this?" Modak asked, raising his brow curiously as he held the coin up to take a closer look. Runar placed his pen onto the table and walked toward the door, motioning for the three to follow him while he reached out to the sprites that were still in the shape of Maximus. Seeing as they were prompted to, they quickly popped apart and back into their original forms, quickly climbing up Runar's arm until they reached his head. They quickly hid between the strands of his messy hair.

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"We use them as a sort of ID. Just a symbol for those that belong to this side of the Aglecards, so if anyone here tries to cause trouble for you, show it to them. I put some extra protections onto them as well, so keep the coin close, preferably even while you're sleeping," Runar closed the door behind everyone and led them back to the exit.

Silvia looked around a bit confused, "Wait, are we leaving? I thought you're going to fill us in."

"Tonight?" Runar sighed, "Do you know how late it is? Go home, rest, make sure your parents know you're alright, and come back tomorrow around 3pm."

"Awe man... does that mean we'll have to climb up all the stairs again?" Silvia asked as they all walked along the road of these ancient ruins hidden below the city.

"Get used to it, you'll have to come into ruins like this plenty from now on," Runar laughed, walking up to a nearby building. He scooped up the sprites from his head and held them toward the wall. They all quickly looked over at Silvia, Ryan, Modak and Maximus, who was being carried by Ryan, and waved at them a few times before jumping right into a hole in the wall.

And with that, the small group made their way back upstairs, leaving the underground village behind for now. Runar locked the basement door with that old key, bringing Silvia and Modak outside.

Ryan quickly hugged them, "Thanks for everything, guys. Seriously."

"Don't mention it, man," Modak smiled, looking toward the café's door, "I mean, you're letting us be a part of a secret society... that's kinda neat, right?"

"Just 'kinda'? Are you kidding me?" Silvia replied immediately, "This is so freaking awesome!"

Ryan smiled at his friends, about to send them off when Runar stopped them.

"What are you guys doing?" he asked, his brow raised. Modak looked at him confused.

"We're heading home? As you told us?"

"Yeah, but you're not going by train, not after everything that happened today," Runar pointed at the expensive, black car that was parked right in front of the building, "They're going to drive you home tonight."

Startled, the orc looked at the car, not sure what to think, "Wait, seriously?"

Runar nodded, walking up to the passenger side window. It rolled down slightly, though just a slit, "You have the addresses, right?"

Though there didn't seem to be an answer, Runar quickly looked at Silvia and Modak.

"Get into the back. Oh, and don't bother trying to talk to them, they're not very talkative," he explained. Even if they were a bit curious now that Runar had said this, they were also very excited. They got into the back of the car, waving at Ryan as they did so, and the car quickly pulled out into the road and disappeared a moment later, leaving the uncle-nephew pair alone.

They silently stood on the sidewalk. Ryan turned around, walking back to the door to make his way into the café again. As he dropped onto one of the nearby chairs, he looked up at his uncle who had followed him back inside.

"Would you have ever told me about this if I hadn't awakened?" Ryan asked, and Runar slowly opened his mouth, but Ryan wasn't finished yet, "You know, actually, scratch that. Even after I awakened, after I showed Maximus to you, after I found Gaia's first shard... you weren't planning on telling me. Even with some fucking weird miasma or whatever stuck to my chest, you were hesitating to tell me."

Runar pulled up a chair and slowly sat down on it. He was moving so slow that Ryan was wondering if he was trying to buy time to come up with an answer.

"Listen, I... I promised your father not to get you involved in this."

"Excuse me? My father, who apparently caused the death of, and crippled even more, spirits that all trusted in him? Why the hell would you do that? Why did you even get involved with him again?" Ryan asked, not sure what he was supposed to think about this whole situation. Knowing his father did something like that made him sick to the stomach. He didn't know why Runar would want to welcome someone like that back into his life.

"It's... complicated."

"Dude, I don't care how complicated it is. If that's really what happened, that's inexcusable. Or are you still hiding something? Something that makes what he did suddenly 'okay'?"

Runar looked down at the ground, as if he was embarrassed to face his nephew, "No. There's nothing that would ever make what Hayden did okay. And I did hate him after he left for what he did, but... he was still my brother. I asked him so many times why he chose to cut off the connection to the system, but he wouldn't tell me. And... and he was sick, alright? How could I..."

Even though he wasn't sure exactly what to feel, Ryan looked at his uncle and his expression. At the white knuckles of his fist. He had no idea what the situation was like from Runar's point of view.

"Sorry, it's just very... weird, you know? Suddenly being told all of this, I mean," Ryan explained, letting his head fall into his neck. No matter what the two spoke about now, it would be impossible for Ryan to collect his thoughts well enough to have a fully coherent conversation about everything. So instead, he moved on to something else.

"So... you guys have other spirit cores?" he asked, and Runar looked at his nephew with raised brows.

"Right, of course, we do! We have one that's responsive and awake, though we obviously haven't been able to communicate properly. Then there's one that seems awake, but doesn't respond no matter what we do. And then we have small fragments of two more cores," Runar explained, trying to recall the exact number, "We don't know which they are, though."

"Then... do you think I could meet them?"

"Obviously! It's going to take a little while to get them here though, I'll keep you updated," a smile formed on Runar's face, as if he was excited to get this done and give those spirits a proper home.

"Right, thanks. Uhm... I do have one more question though," Ryan started, and Runar's smile immediately dropped, "... Why exactly am I building spirits like they're plastic models?"

Relieved that it was just that, Runar let out a laugh, "Oh, that. Well, that part of the Spirit Keeper's abilities present differently for everyone. Every Keeper has a knack for building things, obviously, but it sort of focuses on what they're used to. One of them was a sculptor, who would carve their bodies out of wood or stone. Another a blacksmith who had to forge their bodies. Your father was really into model building, and that's how it presented for him. Guess it was lucky that your dad kept his tools and that you had the same interests."

"Huh," Ryan let out, a bit surprised, "So how would the blacksmith have made, like, Maximus' roots?"

"Oh, all the spirits that were with him were just fully made of metal, it just looked a bit more like wood, I guess. I mean, the one that Hayden, and now you, built were made of plastic and fabric, so-"

"No, Maximus is made of metal. Like, real metal. And the roots are made of wood, and his gloves are made of leather," Ryan interrupted, and Runar seemed to freeze up for a moment.

"... What?"

"Yeah, like... he's made of metal, not plastic. Didn't I tell you about that?"

"I don't believe you did. That... I'll look into our records to double-check things about the past Spirit Keepers, but that shouldn't be the case," Runar placed his hand in front of his mouth in contemplation, "I mean, it's good... but a bit weird, that's all. Maybe when Hayden cut his connection to the system and forcefully removed his class, some changes were made to it."

Ryan looked over at Maximus, but he really just seemed to be curious about his own body after Runar mentioned this. But, his uncle just mentioned something that interested him, "You took records of the class? Do you have like a skill catalogue?"

"Of course. I can get it to you. We store all our data physically, since it's easier to safeguard it. But it should be easy enough to get a copy here together with the cores," Runar pushed himself off his seat, patting his nephew on the shoulder, "But for now, go upstairs and rest. Dealing with the corruption in your body must be exhausting."

"... By the way, we're getting rid of that, right?" Ryan asked, pointing at his chest, and Runar laughed and nodded without hesitation.

"Of course we are, I'll be working out a way to do it safely, but we've got a little bit of time for now. So again, just rest."

Ryan nodded his head, standing up as well. He let out a slight sigh while pulling Maximus back into his domain. Without much else to say, he made his way upstairs. He awkwardly pushed off his trousers and dropped into his bed, throwing his arm over his eyes.

"What the actual fuck, man."