Adeya brings it up first, which is a bit of a relief. We find ourselves walking together as we lead the way through the Sewers. Ahkelios, Gheraa, and the scirix form the middle of the pack, and Dhruv and Taylor take up the rear.
"Most of us are holding off on completing our Trials," Adeya says. I quirk a brow at her, and she shrugs. "It's the best we can do, considering what we know." She hesitates, apparently trying to figure out how to approach the topic, and then just goes for it. "Have you heard of sothing that calls itself the Sunken King?"
I pause for a mont. "I have," I say slowly. "But I'd like to hear what you have to say about him, first."
Adeya gives an evaluating look, but nods. "ntions of the Sunken King show up across a majority of dungeons we've encountered," she says. "Every human Trialgoer—and so alien ones from previous cycles, where we've been able to find allies, along with so of the Disconnected—can corroborate. It's almost never on Trial planets themselves, though. We're not sure why that is yet."
"Probably because dungeons are corpses," I mutter.
Adeya gives a bewildered look. "What?"
"Long story," I say. "I'll explain later. You said he's ntioned a lot. How is he ntioned, exactly?"
"It usually shows up in the form of so kind of prophecy," Adeya says, eyeing before sighing. "Sothing about how the Sunken King will return and devour the galaxy. Nothing especially interesting—it's one of the reasons we didn't take it too seriously, at first."
"But sothing made you take it more seriously?" I guess.
She hesitates, but eventually nods. "I'm sure you've noticed it yourself, especially since you have an Integrator working for you," she says, turning to glance at Gheraa, who quickly pretends he isn't listening. "But most of the Integrators don't know why they're doing all this. They have so general idea of what their goal is—they know the process of Integration brings the Interface's web of influence closer to the center of the galaxy—but they don't know why that's their goal. For so of them, it's a religious thing. A pilgrimage. For others, it's just a ans to grow their power."
"Because the Trials give them new skills and new types of Firmant to work with," I agree.
Adeya stops mid-step, turning to . "They what?"
"They... unlock new skills and gives them new types of Firmant," I say, blinking. "You didn't know?"
"No, we didn't—" She cuts herself off with a sigh, visibly forcing herself to calm down. "We knew that each completed Trial strengthens the Integrators in so way," she says. "We haven't been able to figure out how. You're telling the Trials are, what, making Firmant itself grow more powerful?"
"Sothing like that," I say, and since I doubt this conversation is going to go anywhere without elaborating, I launch into a quick explanation of what I think is going on. Adeya remains silent as I talk about how the Trials exist to help the Interface connect with the Heart of a planet, and how each Heart contains a different distillation of a Concept.
When I'm done, she rubs her temples, looking both relieved and disturbed all at once. "That answers so questions we've had," she mutters. "We figured there had to be more to completing a Trial than just freeing the Sunken King, but we never did a full comparative analysis of our skills. Mostly because people are paranoid."
"Paranoid?" I ask.
"There aren't that many of them, but not everyone agrees with the plan," Adeya says with a sigh. "Joint dungeons co with a lot of risk, and sotis, there are... suspicious deaths. Not many people are willing to share a complete list of their skills because of that."
"Right." I wince a little, but I'm not surprised. I rember being a little suspicious of Zhaohu, too, in our first conversation.
Adeya shakes her head. "Either way, this explains why the Integrators are so eager to integrate new civilizations," she says. "Not sure how much that helps us, but it's good to know. We might be able to use it against them."
"We still have to figure out this Sunken King thing, first," I point out.
"Right." Adeya takes a deep breath. "We started taking it more seriously when we began noticing signs he was awakening. The prophecies all ntion that he has control of the Interface, and that the Interface will begin to behave strangely when he starts to awaken. They also ntion the appearance of certain key dungeons that have all begun to appear."
"What kind of dungeons?" I ask. Adeya winces.
"It's going to sound ridiculous," she says. "But they're all nad after body parts. The Black Heart, the Corroded Spine, the Eyes of the Fallen..."
I snort. "Sohow, that doesn't surprise ."
"Fits in with what you said about dungeons being corpses," Adeya says. "Are you going to explain that, by the way?"
"In a mont," I say. "I need to know more. Is that all the prophecies say about what he's going to do? Or about his motivations?"
"More or less." Adeya frowns as she thinks. "They ntion that it's revenge for so kind of betrayal, but we haven't found anything that explains what the betrayal was. All we know is that he's locked away in the center of the galaxy and that the Interface itself functions both as the chains that bind him and the key that will set him free."
"That sounds about right," I mutter.
Stolen novel; please report.
Adeya gives a long look. "You know sothing."
"I think I do, at least," I say. "I'm pretty sure I've t him."
At this, Adeya stops in her tracks once more to stare at . "You've what?" she hisses, loud enough that several of the scirix turn to stare at us. I shrug awkwardly and gesture for her to keep moving, which she only does after a good thirty seconds or so. "You're going to need to explain that one. And don't you dare say you'll explain it later."
"Like I said, I'm pretty sure I've t him," I say, shifting uncomfortably under the intensity of her glare. "It happened when I was... alright, there's a lot to explain, here. I'm going to need to take a step back."
"This better lead to an explanation," Adeya mutters.
"It will," I assure her. "It started when I broke the Interdiaries—"
"That was you?" Adeya interrupts. Once again, she's loud enough that the scirix turn to stare at us.
"Yes," I say.
"This is going to take a long ti if I keep getting surprised, isn't it?" Adeya says, staring at .
"Astute observation," I say dryly. She snorts.
"I'll do my best to keep it in," she says. She stays true to her word, though, staying mostly quiet as I explain what led to the damage to the Interdiaries and the subsequent damage to the Interface, then my eventual attempt to trigger an Inspiration.
"That's why your Inspirations are so weird," she mutters. "This Kauku. You think he's the Sunken King?"
"If not him, then an aspect of him," I say with a sigh. "That part I'm not so sure about."
"The fact that he offered to help you worries ."
"Trust , I'm on the sa boat."
Adeya listens intently as I explain the rest of it—everything from his initial offer of help to his eventual disappearance, and our conclusion about Rhoran's part in all this. After that, she remains silent for a solid minute or two, her expression both disturbed and thoughtful.
"I think you're right," she says. "It explains a lot. Explains why you've got an Integrator on your side, too." She glances back at Gheraa, then grimaces a bit. "Where there's one... I doubt this Rhoran is the only case of Integrator abuse. I might have to ask the others to keep an eye out for this. We might get more allies out of it. Which we're going to need, if the rest of what you said is true.
"What I don't understand is how this Rhoran was able to infect Kauku," she continues. "If Kauku was as powerful as you say, then he should've been able to fend sothing like that off."
I nod. I've been thinking about that too. "Unless he didn't want to."
"Exactly." Adeya gives a serious look. "Sothing about what Rhoran can do accelerates his plans, and he was willing to give up so amount of autonomy to do it. That's a dangerous amount of dedication."
"Tell about it." I sigh. "We need to figure out what he's up to. He's laying low for now, and he hasn't interfered with this dungeon, so I'm willing to bet there's sothing here he needs. After that..."
"After that," Adeya says, "all bets are off."
I nod. "That's the gist of it."
"We could abandon this dungeon," Adeya says. "Complete this stage and never co back."
"Even if I didn't need to complete it to help my friend, do you really think he'd make it that easy?"
"I think he'd start actively sabotaging us." Adeya grimaces. "So what do we do? We can't just wait around for him to break free, and from what you're saying, it sounds like he's well on his way."
"Well, first of all, keep doing what you're doing," I say. "Don't complete Trials. Every one we complete is going to strengthen him—he's got more access to the Interface than any of us."
"Right. Done."
"Second," I say. "We need to prepare. He wants Hestia, I'm pretty sure. The fragnt of Rhoran that infected him has it out for Gheraa, so he's going to co after us first no matter what—and that's not accounting for the fact that Hestia's Heart is going to give him the power to do exactly what he wants."
"How are we going to do that?" Adeya asks, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we can't just break through the Interdiaries to co help you..."
She trails off. I raise an eyebrow at her. "Shut up," she says irritably. "I'm thinking."
"I didn't say anything."
"We might," she says. "We might be able to. I don't know. We're going to have to talk to our contacts in the Disconnected, and frankly, most of us don't have nearly enough power to match up to you. I'm not sure how much use we're going to be."
"I can help with that," I say. Adeya straightens, realization striking us.
"You've advanced faster than any of us," she says. "Are you going to tell us how?"
"I'm going to tell you as much as I can," I say. "Not all of it is going to work. It didn't for Ahkelios, so there might be an extra trick or two to it."
"It doesn't matter," Adeya says. "Even if it only helps a little, collectively, across all the human Trialgoers and our allies..."
She sounds excited. Hopeful, even. I smile at her. "Then let's make sure the Sunken King will have an army to reckon with if he awakens."
Adeya's responding grin is fierce. "Let's."
Not long after, we encounter the first of our expected obstacles on our way to the Tear. The structure of the challenge in the third Ritual stage is fairly simple: it's an endurance and navigation puzzle. Every ti we approach sothing that might help us make progress, the Sewers shift and rearrange its passages, closing off so and opening others. It's ant to test us, force us to travel for days to arrive at even one of the objectives.
We don't have days. Not with Kauku's plans advancing in the background. So we take a shortcut, and that shortcut takes the form of... well, .
It's a plan that's going to result in a lot of deaths, more likely than not, and that suits just fine. It plays perfectly into everything else I need to accomplish. So when the Sewers first begin to shift and block off a path, I launch myself forward, the Knight's Projector Form coalescing around my body.
"Hurry!" I call. The shields I'm using strain against the tunnel walls, and the entire expedition team hurries through while I keep them open; Dhruv and Taylor give half-terrified and awed looks respectively as they step through.
Just as predicted, the Sewers don't like it when I try to circumvent its rules like this. It reacts the sa way it did before, elongating the tunnel so much that the entirety of it collapses on before I can escape. We're lucky that it only reacts like this once the expedition team has passed completely—the plan wouldn't work otherwise. Nor would it work if I didn't have a key that claims to let rejoin the expedition team at will.
But both those things are true, so when the tunnel crushes , I feel nothing but fierce amusent. I make sure not to laugh this ti, though.
A powerful wave of Temporal Firmant washes over .
Once again, I find myself aware of the world as it ticks slowly backward.
Once again, I reach out, feeding that power into my core.
And once again, my core grows a little bigger, spins a little faster, and deepens.
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