I had hoped the night would pass without any more drama. Want in one hand I suppose. I awoke to being poked. My eyes snapped open and I found Celeste's shining eyes watching me. She was wrapped in all the blankets. Angelica had in fact stolen them. Angelica may not have felt bad, but Celeste took pity on me. She untangled herself from the covers and tossed them over me.

"Hey," I said, not entirely sure what was up. I would have whispered but Sunit snored. Now angelica -when she wasn't sleeping on a bed- snored, but the noise Sunit made…it was close to tooth rattling. So my voice in the relative din was mostly unheard.

Celeste smiled, "Slow down this isn't that sort of visit."

Sunit continued to produce noises comparable to that of a wood chipper.

"I kinda figured," I told her.

"I am glad we are clear," Celeste said. She snuggled closer, "Any idea what the hell that thing was?"

"Elijah? No," I considered, "I'm pretty sure I am going to regret not killing it."

Celeste considered, "Probably. Its ability to manipulate…" She paused, "It scares me."

"Do you have Mental Resistance?" I asked.

"Yes, but just recently, last level," Celeste didn't hesitate to share her secrets. I keep hearing there is a lot of baggage with sharing info on stats. I got it too. You weren't just telling someone your strengths, anyone with a mind to and access to the knowledge could figure out your weakness too. In a world as violent as ours a sense of mystery was a type of armor all its own. "Angelica doesn't have access to it though."

"It said it had pheromones and they didn't work on me. I think it was telling the truth. Even with Mental Resistance I could tell the thing was gently influencing me. Nothing crazy, but enough to matter." I paused, "Should I have gone after it?"

"And left us to the dragon?" Celeste pointed out. Seeing that didn't fully answer my question she added, "I could have killed it but not before it would have gotten a few shots in at the convoy. Brunhilda could block one, maybe two, but not three."

"That doesn't really sound like a yes or a no," I said. An acidic burn of anxiety had settled in my core.

"There are no easy answers in life," Celeste commiserated.

Sunit's snoring intensified. I kinda worried for his health. Something must be deviated.

"To hell with this," Brunhilda muttered while getting out of bed. Her night clothes were plaid pajamas under an iron chain shirt. She also had a teddy bear. "Between you're sparkling and-" Sunit's snoring drowned out her gripes. In a moment of relative silence between Sunits breaths Brunhilda declared, "I am going to sleep outside."

"I am being dumb. There is no sense regretting protecting people," I repeated that internally a few times. "We will just keep doing that, come what will."

Celeste's hand rested on mine. Her thumb drew a small circle along my knuckle, "That leads into the other thing I want to talk to you about…" She considered again.

"The fight with Grond," I offered.

"Yeah," her hand stopped, "We need to be smart about it. Some nasty surprise is coming."

"I figured. So you want to kill him?" I asked.

"Yes," Celeste admitted. She went quite trying to put justification into words.

My mind snapped to Grond not knowing Rebecca's, his priestess's, name, and the veil hiding Aiko's face. Don't get me wrong, Grond planned to build an army of mobs and chuck it wholesale at people to inflict horrors. All so he could force recruit followers. That was objectively worse by nearly every moral measurement. The thing is, it read like a cartoon villian's plan. It didn't feel real. Maybe it was because I saw the people Grond abused, but the personal petty nature of those personal acts of malice stuck with me more.

"By all means take the first shot," I told Celeste.

Celeste paused. She had been about to make her case, "That's the tricky bit. We need to bait out his essence. If I just stomp his avatars, the coward will probably just run."

"I am pretty sure that is why I am here," Aiko said calmly.

I jumped and despite being fully clothed pulled the covers up to my neck, "Is anyone in this tent actually sleeping?"

Sunit let loose another rumble of snoring.

"Brand is," Aiko answered unbothered by apparent shyness, "I hope Sunit is sleeping otherwise what he is doing is some sort of act of abuse."

"You are comfortable with being bait?" Celeste asked.

"I am bait," Aiko said. "Sorry for interrupting." She quietly walked back to her bed and sat down. She then laid down and wrapped the pillow around her head. I am not going to pretend like I could read Aiko. I didn't know her, and I hadn't done all that much to learn about her.

I was going to need to talk to her come sun up.

Celeste rested her head on my shoulder..

"Is there anything else you want to talk about?" I asked. I figured time was at a premium.

"You and Aiko bait out Grond's essence, I will do what I can to kill him," She sighed. She didn't like the idea much. Killing Grond was necessary, but it was still murder.

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I didn't like it all that much either, "Would you give me one chance to try and talk Grond down. Provided no one else is in danger?"

Celeste was quiet for a moment, "Do you think you can?"

"Probably not, but if I can make him see this is Adora's manipulation… I would like to try," I said. It was true. I had no love for Grond. Hell, in the world that was he was the type of guy I wouldn't piss on if he was on fire. That said, killing someone is very different than being willing to let them die. The other bit was this wasn't the world that was. If I could get Grond to turn on a Narrator, specifically Lindsey…

"Try," Celeste agreed. After another moment, "Could you please hold me?"

I could. She was already nestled in one of my arms. I hugged her. It may seem like a little thing, but any chance you have to be there for someone you care about, be there. Celeste didn't stay that long. After about three minutes she faded back and left a sleeping Angelica.

I pulled up the prompt to fall asleep and hit yes. I had to press it a few times. Sunit's snoring rivalled a diesel engine.

I awoke again to someone poking me. Angelica this time with her elbow, kinda hard. She was still trapped in my hug. Somehow she had managed to once again steal all the blankets. I couldn't be mad. It was impressive really. I don't know how she managed it. The thing is she had wrapped herself like a burrito in the blankets and now with me hugging her she was basically trapped.

I could see a crack of sunlight through the tent flap.

"Morning," I said to Angelica as she kept poking me.

"I gotta go," She said urgently.

"Where?" I asked, confused.

Angelica elbowed me, "I have to go."

"Oh," I moved my arms. She rolled free and zipped out of the tent.

The flash of light woke Sunit. He sat up and yawned. He saw Brand and Aiko still sleeping. He turned to me, "Did I snore?"

"A little," I told him. I stood. If the sun was up, that meant I had things to do. I should really figure out what they are.

The early dawn light was still blinding relative to the gloom of the tent.

"How's that?" Brunhilda asked. She was tending to Pinky. She had scraped off the ice bandaged I had used and rigged up a large leather and metal… sling to hold Pinky's damaged side. A slagged lump of pink metal was set on the snow in front of them.

Pinky stood and balanced. The mechana-beast hopped around once, twice, and a few times more testing its ability to move. Pinky nodded in approval.

"That does look better," I said, walking over.

Brunhilda hopped off her bed she had simply taken with her out into the snow. "Of course it is. Ice is ephemeral, not a building material, Bubby. Tell 'em, Pinky."

Pinky shrugged, showing off out the metal sling covered his wounded shoulder and helped him balance.

"It is hard to argue with that," I admitted. "Listen Pinky, I am so sorry this happened to you."

The Mechana-beast blinked. It walked closer and balanced on one foot and with the other patted my shoulder.

"You're not mad?" I asked.

Pinky shook its head.

"We'll figure out something to fix you," I said.

Pinky nodded.

I sat down in the snow, "Let me try and get some things figured out.

Commune Check… Successful

You are now communicating with Follower Seth Cohen

Doug: Hey, Seth are you awake?

Seth: I am. What do you need?

Doug: Could you tell Giselle we found a Mechana-beast? I am pretty sure it is related to her. Seth: How can you tell? Doug: It is pink

Seth: it? Doug: Pinky is a giant metal bird.

Seth: shouldn't you use he or she?

Doug: if you want you can come over here and sex the robot bird.

Seth: I will pass it along.

Doug: Thank you.

Seth: Anything else?

Doug: I am going to send you some images of some creatures calling themselves Ictheys. Could you draw them and show everyone. I have no idea what they are, but they are dangerous.

Seth: Yeah No problem.

Doug: Thank you.

Seth: Can I ask you something?

Doug: Sure.

Seth: How is Rachel?

Doug: I'll have to check. She hasn't reached out to me.

Seth: Could you?

Doug: Of course.

It took a few more Commune checks to send Seth the images.

I opened my eyes and found Brunhilda, Angelica and Pinky watching me, "I told people near Giselle that we found you. I can point you to where she is."

The Mechana-beast shook its head.

"You want to stay with us?" I asked.

Pinky nodded.

"I mean we need all the help we can get," I said.

Pinky nodded emphatically. It would hurt my feelings but the mechana-beast was earnest and very correct.

"Doug, eat!" Angelica said. She tossed me a cloth wrapped bundle at me a split second later. I unwrapped it eh bundle and found a…I don't know. It was a wrap made of mushroom. The inside cooked down meat and vegetables from the stew. I shrugged and took a bite. It wasn't great. Not bad though. I ate it as reached out with Commune

Commune Check… Successful

You are now communicating with Follower Rachel Blum

Doug: Good morning, Rachel.

Rachel: What fresh hell are you bringing me?

Doug: Just checking in.

Rachel: Because?

Doug: I care about your welfare. Rachel: … We have reached the Dungeon of the Dread Spiders. We are going to clear it.

Doug: You are choosing to go into a dungeon full of spiders? Rachel: Dread Spiders and we would have preferred to go to the wolf one. That was cleared. You and… your friends cleared the Snow Lion Dungeon. The Murder Ursa Dungeon is known to require a sacrifice so fuck that. That leaves this place and the Bigfoot Dungeon. No one has ever cleared the Bigfoot dungeon. So we are signing up for a bug hunt.

Doug: Do you need help? Rachel: I don't know. The dungeon has clearly broken recently but from what we can tell. It is almost empty.

Doug: That is ominous.

Rachel: yep, what about you?

Doug: I encountered some weird shape shifting fish men things calling themselves Ictheys. Have you ever heard of them?

Rachel: Nope. Sorry. … I got something else I have to say.

Doug: Okay.

Rachel: You have to be quiet and just let me talk.

Rachel: Okay, so since we established a connection with you. Stability has been the best it has ever been. Normally most of my people would be half baked on anti-anx and the other half jittered on stims. Right now no one is on more than the minimum to prevent withdrawal. Doc is over the moon but waiting for the other shoe to drop. I am pretty sure this is because of you. Thank you for helping my people.

Doug: your welcome.

Rachel: I told you to be quiet. You ruined the moment!

I broke the connection. That went a lot better than I thought it would. An empty dungeons… that probably boded poorly for me. I forwarded most of the information over to Seth. He thanked me and said we would get the drawings done as soon as he could after talking to Giselle.

Aiko stepped out of the tent. She took in the scene of Pinky, Brunhilda, Angelica and I sitting in the snow eating odd food. I watched her watch me. She was thinking through something. She had almost made up her mind and settled on a strategy, she abandoned it. After another few moments she clearly decided to just go with the obvious answer.

She walked up to me and said, "I need to talk to you about Grond… and Adora."

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