When the Monarch of Karma woke up, floating on that tumbling bit of stone, he saw the entire universe laid out above him. Not only did the view possess more stars than he had ever seen, but they sparkled without any intentions. His eyes began to pulse with power as his image stirred. All that he saw, he deserved-
“No, no, not this shit again…” The Monarch of Karma scowled at his own instinctive reaction. He refused to waste the clarity that he had regained. His body ached and his head was blurry, but at least the enthralling dream had passed, he had sohow hiccuped his way out of the self-fulfilling prophecy. He raised a hand and squeezed the bridge of his nose, but this simple act caused him to tremble as he saw his own fingers.
He twisted them, joints aching, torn between fear and wonder. His mories babbled out conflicting statents, making him unable to get a clear grip on his situation. Yet he believed his eyes; his hands were creased with wrinkles and spotted with age. The Monarch of Karma’s head swam. “When did I beco so old?”
The affirmations flooded his entire awareness to buoy his consciousness toward that twisted viewpoint that gripped him for so long. He wasn’t old! He deserved-
“Bah,” The Monarch grunted. He shifted his weight and stood. He had to sway to catch his balance, because the stone on which he had landed… or rather, the bit of debris, was probably just big enough to catch him. Plus, his old joins ached at any sort of sudden movent. He tumbled through space on an uncomfortable bed of stone just large enough for him to lay out.
He kept his thoughts disciplined, so the affirmations weren’t invited back to multiply and beco dangerous. As such, his image beca increasingly sluggish around him. He simply floated for a while and tried to simply be impressed by the gorgeous world he saw, without a single covetous or self-absorbed thoughts.
But the image of those wrinkled hands nagged at him. He couldn’t let go of the implications of that age. With his shoulders trembling, his thoughts turned toward his son.
“You… are probably dead, aren’t you, Quantan?”
If the universe tried to answer the question, the Monarch of Karma didn’t listen. By now it had thoroughly learned to distrust a universe that tried to talk with you, soon sweeping you up in its own strange impulses and desires. Instead, the Monarch just sat and wept. He didn’t think about whether or not he deserved this grief, who had caused it, or what could be done about it. For now, the tears were everything.
And when finally he ceased sobbing, the loneliness arrived and hovered above him, stopping just short of putting a hand on his shoulder. He felt so truly alone.
“I’ve been alone for a long ti, haven’t I?” His chest shook and tears coursed down his face. “But… now I realize it. Mae Myrna… was this really the truth you sought?”
*****
“Why are you looking at like that?” Lyra said, tilting her head to the side as she studied him, a mannerism that felt so familiar yet simultaneously so strange.
“...because I expect you to insult or call doggy. Because…” Randidly pressed his lips together. Since they had last t, years had passed. Lyra had grown from a young starlet adjusting to the System, to a being of energy as a Village Spirit… and now into a tall, elegant woman who worked for the Nexus directly, assisting in the underlying maintenance of the overlay System. Lyra’s image hadn’t developed to the point of being scary, as with most of the individuals Randidly encountered recently. He could feel the cool light of her lunar focus in her moderately otherworldly deanor. However…
The flickering behavior of Aether around her hinted at deeper changes. When Randidly peered at the energy halos underlying existence, he could see the truth of her. He saw the essence of her existence.
“You worry I’m going to selfishly twist this project by the Upper Sonara Society. Like I did in the past, on Expira,” Lyra supplied. Her voice was gentle, but so of the sharpness remained in her features.
Randidly shrugged. “You are more energy construct than human, these days.”
“I will not deny that. But If I have discarded my humanity… you have completely sliced it out of you, Randidly Ghosthound.” He narrowed his eyes, but Lyra raised a hand. Compared to the teenage version of herself, the adult Lyra seed curiously elongated. A woman whose willowy lengths might even bee a bit to drawn out to be a model in a pre-System world. “Peace. I did not an anything by it. I just wanted to point out that my actions were not so horrific sin. I followed my own Path to power, like everyone else.”
“And you’ve beco allied with Nathaz Eloise?” Randidly said.
Lyra nodded. “You’ve chosen your thods of helping our ho world… and I’ve chosen mine. I didn’t an to spring this eting on you… honestly, I would have preferred to avoid it. But I didn’t know… you would accompany the ancestor of Nathaz.”
Randidly frowned as sothing occurred to him. “You… because of the protections I put on the Alpha Cosmos, when is the last ti you’ve been back to Expira? Or even communicated with the people of Donnyton?”
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“For … perhaps thirteen years have passed?” Lyra considered and then nodded. “I can admit my previous selfishness was wrong… but I do not think my intentions were misguided. You seem surprised, but you shouldn’t be. Toil without recognition is all I’ve ever known— fa was a poisoned chalice I luckily had been predisposed to dislike. I don’t think the environnt of our ho planet, with and without the System, is as dissimilar as we would like to believe.”
In Randidly’s eyes, Lyra burned with a quiet intensity. The sa monstrous Willpower that had allowed her to copy the activation of Mana she witnessed from him had been turned to studying the underpinnings of Engraving, embedding herself in the infrastructure of the System, and personally aiding the cause of protecting humanity.
And as soon as he examined Lyra in her entirety, feeling the shape of her significance and the intensity of her emotions, Randidly faced an unavoidable truth— he and Lyra had shaped each other. All the selflessness and determination burning in the depths of his soul… perhaps those first embers had been seeded there when Randidly had returned to Donnyton and found the human Lyra slain, an amorphous grey blob lying in its place.
When he learned what she had sacrificed to protect the town he had founded.
When she had been kidnapped and held hostage by Yystrix. When she had even begun working with Yystrix, convinced by her argunts about the danger of Elhu.
Congratulations! Your Skill What the Ghosthound Sows, He Will Soon Reap (GD)(U) has grown to Level 26!
In the sa way, She had been shaped by Randidly’s growth. When he continued to grow strong. When he wasn’t quite strong enough but pushed himself to the limits to save her.
When they had clashed and Randidly had rejected her thods. And when, despite the minuscule chance of success Randidly possessed… he continued to succeed.
Congratulations! Your Skill What the Ghosthound Sows, He Will Soon Reap (GD)(U) has grown to Level 243!
Randidly’s eyes glazed over at the flood of notifications and Lyra chuckled again; this ti, the noise held a note of bitterness. “Isn’t it strange how easily we’ve drifted back to strangers, once again? In another life… well. When I was younger, when I wasn’t sure if the System was permanent, I think a part of assud I would soday leave you behind. Perhaps it was exactly those expectations which led to this mont. Tch, I had all these cool lines planned out to say to you, to make you regret the way things ended between us. A whole monologue. And yet… I look at you like this-” Lyra gestured vaguely to his body. “And all I can think to say is… Good job, Randidly Ghosthound. Fuck , but you really just might save the world.”
“I’m not doing it alone, however.” Randidly scratched his cheek.
He ant it more generally, referring to all the energies he absorbed from the Alpha Cosmos, all the assistance of his allies, but Lyra’s eyes flashed in interest. She scanned Randidly again. “Wait, are you seeing soone?”
“I-”
“You are!” Lyra brought both her hands to her cheeks, her mouth o’d in a look of total shock. In the playful motion, she briefly looked as she had when they were younger, when the strange romantic tension existed between the two of them. “Well, well, well. Color impressed. Be careful. I suspect the one truth you will never really understand… is the pressure it takes to stand by the side of a man who refuses to flinch or rest.”
Randidly wondered how he could casually change the subject when Neveah popped back over. “Luckily for Randidly, I don’t think he needs to actually learn, in this case. The individual in question is just as obsessed as he is.”
Instantly, Lyra’s disposition cooled sowhat. Clearly, there lingered so less savory emotions between the two won. “Ah, Neveah. A pleasure as always. Is it soone I would know?”
“In a sense,” Neveah also spoke with a bit of extra haughtiness. “A version from another tiline, but the object of Randidly’s affections is the charming Actus Suprem! Well, we haven’t told the main Nexus version of Devick, but I’m sure we are all looking forward to the reveal.”
For several seconds, Lyra just opened and closed her mouth.
A wave of energy rose from the Engraving array as the pillars' energy joined together. The edges of the working began to churn; Randidly could see those spots that Neveah had suggested changes, marginally improving the energy transference of the process.
Lyra bowed. “I need to assist Nathaz in his preparations. But… I’m glad we are once more on the sa side, Randidly.”
He simply nodded, observing Lyra and her grown form, long and graceful, as she proceeded to the side of the younger Eloise and began to draw sigils in the air. Randidly pursed his lips, watching as a secondary array ca into being around the pillars. “Can we trust her?”
“Not to subvert the array, or whether she will betray us?” Neveah shrugged. “Well, I cannot deny that she’s a genius, looking at how she approaches Engravings. But really, I ca over to scold you: aren’t you supposed to be recovering? Don’t allow sothing like this to rile you up so much.”
“It was just a surprise,” Randidly rolled his shoulders.
“Aren’t we approaching the last confrontation? If any of these forces you’ve encountered has been biding their ti, they will soon reveal themselves.” Neveah said.
“Speaking of that…” Randidly raised his gaze from their working to the maelstrom of churning significance gathering above the main tower of the Nexus. They were in the thick of it, the invisible currents of history whirling around them. He sucked on his teeth. “They will co in droves soon, I suspect. Not just Elhu… but anyone with an image and a foundation. This mont is becoming too burdened with aning to miss.”
“Isn’t that why we’ve accumulated so much power?” Neveah poked Randidly in the side. “So you can… Seize the mont?”
“...did you really just make a joke?” Randidly furrowed his brows. “Right now of all tis?”
“I’m surprisingly free.” Neveah lifted her chin. “No one is attacking us yet.”
The energies of the working gurgled and seethed. A thick, liquid Aether ford a dense pool in the middle of the pillars. A thousand small ripples fought and bred within the liquid energy, a chaos that not even Randidly could see through.
Just… what the hell are you waiting for, Elhu? Randidly scowled. Then he forced himself to relax as he breathed and did his best to recover his ntal energy.
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