"Just how magic was that fountain, anyway?" Qīwù asked, staring into the city.

Turns out that 'fixing' the Grey Rift by replacing it with a fountain had also knocked loose our repetitive cycle through the blocks of thatched-roof cottages.

When we'd come to the end of the block the Rift had been in, instead we saw something new. There was an administrative district, complete with taller buildings that appeared to be stores, more squat ones with seating out front that seemed like they would be restaurants, and a cluster of taller, winding buildings in the very middle that seemed to reach into the sky itself.

Honestly, the whole thing reminded me a lot of the area I'd found the fountain in, only instead of being ornate and finely carved, everything here was this same sandy color, with very blocky outlines, like a child had pieced it together from blocks.

Being in an area that seemed so clearly fit for human activity but hearing nothing but the sounds of our footsteps was disconcerting, and made me profoundly uncomfortable for some reason. All of the subtle noises we made while moving would echo back towards us from every direction, as there were no soft surfaces around to absorb the sound, and none of the hustle and bustle a real city would have to mask it.

Yeah, real city. This one felt so thoroughly unreal in so many ways that my brain just refused to consider it as such.

Viktor suddenly jumped forward and slammed his fist into the ground, sending pieces of the pavers skittering across the plaza in a small shower of debris.

"Shadow again," he said, by way of explanation, before adding: "Missed it."

"Do you think that it is related to the area you created the fountain in?" István asked, looking to me for answers.

"I don't think so," I replied. "I'm fairly sure it wasn't present when I was doing that. I'd like to think that it couldn't have bypassed my ability to detect it so thoroughly."

So far I hadn't really gotten a good look at the shadow, and the one time I had spotted it, I hadn't been actively sensing the world around me with my Nebula the same way I had when we'd scouted out the physical extents of the city blocks.

I looked back over to Viktor. "Does it have any shape to it?"

"No. It looks about human sized though." He replied.

"Me human, or you human?" I replied, trying to resist the temptation to grin about it. "There's a definite difference in scale."

The big man scratched the back of his head, looking a little sheepish. "Closer to you, I would say."

"So, one half-starved waif-sized shadow," I couldn't hold back the grin any longer, "Got it!"

"Not for lack of trying," Qīwù grumbled at me. "If I didn't remind you to eat constantly, you'd evaporate. How have you survived your whole life?"

"On supper," I replied, matter-of-factly.

"Only one meal? That's not enough." Her brow knitted in a pattern of wrinkles big enough to wear as a mitten.

"Elder Gran made them," I clarified.

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"Oh," she said, her expression loosing a bit. "That's better, then. I always feel bizarrely overfull after her meals. I don't even recall eating that much!"

"The Elder is sneaky like that," I said, throwing Gran just a bit of completely honest shade. She'd very subtly ask you if you wanted more and you'd just accept it because all the food looked amazing. At least, that was my experience.

"Elder Gran is a Saint," Qīwù said, sounding almost like she was defending my own grandmother from me. I found it quite amusing. I let it slide since my Attendant was right; Gran was a saint.

We proceeded across the empty space in front of most of the buildings, towards the center, it seemed like that was where the most interesting bits would be. None of us had actively picked that direction; we more or less ambled that way by implicit consensus.

As we grew close to the buildings, it became obvious just how massive they really were. The office building we'd worked in could have fit inside any one of these with nary a corner showing, maybe even twice.

I seemed to remember the buildings in the city center in my old world - the ones I'd visited with my father - being this tall, but I couldn't be sure. Either way, they were stupendously huge, almost improbably so. I wondered how something so tall could stand on a base that, while large, was so narrow. Surely a stiff breeze could knock these over.

How big they actually were was a bit of a mystery, as I couldn't see the peaks; they were obscured in the clouds. Guess we'd find out once we went inside.

That was something I hadn't had the opportunity to do with my father, so I was definitely looking forward to doing so here. The only building larger than our home I'd been in was the office build for Viktor's Rift Recovery and Assorted Unknown Operations.

I really needed to ask him what the name of that business was. It was driving me a little crazy that I couldn't remember it. Surely he'd know… I hope.

While I'd seen him do paperwork on and off, it was very clear that his favorite part of the business was to be out and beating Rifts into submission. More literally than figuratively, that last bit.

In another parallel to my memories, the landing in front of the building we'd chosen was richly landscaped, with bushes (square), benches (squared off), and many tiny tiles (you guessed it, squares).

In the very center, however, sat a fountain. My fountain. It was the spitting image of the one I'd made earlier. I felt a shiver go down my back.

"Why is the city copying you?" Viktor said, getting the jump on both me and apparently István - as the latter had his finger up as though he was going to comment on it, but lowered it once the big man said his piece.

"I'll be damned if I know," I replied, and Qīwù looked at me like I'd grown an additional set of ears where my eyebrows should be. "What?"

"Such coarse language. It sometimes make me wonder."

"Wonder what, exactly?" Came an icy voice from behind. Qīwù withered like a flower deprived of water, having apparently forgotten that Celistar was with us, despite her rather formidable presence. She had a bit of pressure to her now, that she'd shifted back to her lunar-aligned Nebula.

"What wonderful and amazing stories the Venerable must have, with such a colorful vocabulary."

Daaaang. That was a smooth save. I could only nod in appreciation. I was even willing to overlook the slight shake in my Attendant's voice. I wish I was half that quick on my feet.

Granted, Qīwù seemed to have a way of tripping over hers, so it was only fitting she had the verbal reflexes to compensate for her shortcomings.

Celistar hadn't been looking at me, but she had a few tricks up her own sleeve as well, following up the girl's statement with her own. "Benefactor has many, and varied. It was by their grace and power that the Azure Sky Sect survived a world-ending calamity."

The Moon Fairy had somehow injected a bunch of… feelings - or something similar that I couldn't quite place a name on - into the words 'world ending' to the point where I swore I felt reality shake a little. Qīwù's pupils contracted at the sound, as if she could see the same huge rent split the sky from top to bottom, destroying what remained of the world.

Memories rushed back to me as I recalled struggling against both time and the tide of monsters. Manipulating the mechanism. Draining every last drop of power I had to give. Desperately trying to save my family from the cataclysm.

Those whom I could still save, anyway…

I had come all this way to this bizarre cityscape just to gain the power to better keep them safe; I wasn't about to stop here just because of some stupid memories.

Quickening my steps, I walked ahead of the pair, unwilling to show them the tears in my eyes.

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