"You know," Adelle commented. "Those lyrics were perhaps a bit too on the nose if you're trying to fool the monks."

"Eh," Nessy-Candace laughed mentally. "It's fine. I bound the mental perception of some of the words. The crowd would have heard whatever they wanted to hear. Only you two heard the real unmodified lyrics."

"Aight, you do you," the cheetah stretched.

"Yeah," Vivianne muttered from the magic projection. "That dual-voice thing is… cool, I guess. You've been holding out on us, Ness."

"Mhmm." Nessy-Candace replied with an airy wave of her paw. "Just expanding my artistic horizons. Gotta keep the fans engaged!" She flashed a dazzling smile at a passing fox student, who stumbled slightly before giving her a thumbs-up. "See? Effective."

Viv seemed to accept this, for now. The growing crowd and the potential for book sales seemed like a more immediate concern. She turned back to her spot behind the LoomCo table, shifting into sales mode.

Nessy launched into another song. A more upbeat, catchy tune that had prads unconsciously tapping their claws.

The scene evolved into a masterclass of spiritual consumerism with the following pattern:

The music was the hook, drawing in passersby with its infectious energy. Once a decent-sized crowd had gathered, expanding outside of the platform next to a white church behind the gazebo, a friendly-looking monk would step forward from the booth.

"A free book for you, friend!" he'd declare, handing a lavish, 'Delvers 2020' volume to a curious onlooker.

The moment the 'customer' accepted the free offering, the trap would spring. Sister Zheniya would glide over, her expression serene. "I see you have an interest in the path of new age enlightenment. The soul is a garden, you know. It must be tended."

Then, Viv would pounce, a whirlwind of sly foxy charm. "Hey, friend! Did you know that since you're already here and got one of our books, you're halfway to earning credits for our book store membership program? Do you have a membership? Because if you did, you could get this rare Skill-raising grimoire, imbued with gold hexagrams and made with genuine dungeon-reclaimed vellum, for HALF OFF! That's a steal!"

If the customer looked skeptical or voiced a lack of interest in spiritual discovery, Sage would materialize at their elbow, his grimoire tome's eyeball swiveling to fixate on them. "If you're not one for spiritual pursuits," he offered in his academic tone. "Perhaps you are an appreciator of the mathematical elegance of consciousness? This volume of 'Infinite Loops' explores the fractal nature of the soul and how it interacts with the world and limitless dungeons."

The final nail in the coffin would be one of the oversized wolf monks, smiling beatifically. "Perhaps, we will see you at the temple next Sunday? Our novitiate Nessy will be performing again, you know. And we're having catering, courtesy of our talented Culimancers, the best, freshest dungeon-produce funded by the Noon family of LoomCo!"

It was a brilliant, multi-pronged assault of social pressure, intellectualism, and fomo. I watched on as they convinced a burly bear to walk away with seven books on meditative breathing, dungeon speed running, accelerating level gains and a premium book store membership.

"Heh," Adelle whistled. "They're good at pushing shit onto people."

"A well-oiled machine of book peddling," I agreed.

"Ugh," Nessy's thoughtcast voiced. "I've been singing at these events for a while now and yet I've only now realised exactly how much of this is a scam."

"What, the books don't help?" I asked.

"Some of the books might have decent advice," Nessy lamented mentally as she continued to strum a cheerful tune. "But it's definitely overpriced. You could literally Pawgle all of this stuff for free. Most of those books won't raise anything skill-wise since they're poorly made low level artifacts. Their binding is super shoddy. Like nowhere professional Binder level! Slayer, now I feel awful about peddling these things for so long for Sage's family."

A group of raptors swaggered through the crowd with an air of excessive entitlement that could only belong to a particular family. Katherine Strand, flanked by Kirra and the rest of her 'monster' squad, pushed her way to the front of the gazebo.

"Ha! Thought I heard a familiar sing-song voice at the market," Katherine sneered. "If it isn't the temple's pet mutt, singing for her rice supper. What's the setlist tonight, doggo? 'Ode to a Human Knob'? 'Ballad of the Loser Pack'? Where's your human captain? Not here to watch you embarrass yourself?"

Her raptor cronies snickered. The crowd shifted uncomfortably, sensing the impending confrontation.

From her booth, Vivianne's head snapped up. Nessy didn't falter. She finished her song with a final, defiant chord, then pulled her guitar over onto her back, slipping down and sitting down on the edge of the gazebo's stage with an overly-cheery swagger.

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"Sup rapteronies?" she said. "Still sore about getting your ass handed to you in the sim? Or is this just your usual 'I'm a miserable beerch so everyone else has to be too' routine?"

The crowd gasped. Katherine's beak dropped open, gold-green eyes blinking. Nessy Whitepaw, the quiet, shy, dreamy Bard, had clearly never spoken to her like that before.

"What did you just call me?" Katherine hissed.

"A miserable beerch," Nessy repeated pleasantly. "Or would you prefer 'feathered knobfold with a daddy-funded superiority complex'? I'm flexible."

"That's it! You're dead!" Katherine started to move forward, claws out.

"Don't, Kat," Kirra hissed, pulling her sister back. "In public? With all these witnesses? And Krishna monks? She's obviously baiting you!"

From across the way, the fox and owl were staring at Nessy. Viv whispered something to Sage, her aquamarine eyes narrowed. Sage nodded. The eyeball in his grimoire swiveled, its gaze locking onto the husky girl.

The fox and owl stepped out from behind their table and walked over to where Nessy sat.

"Sup guys?" The husky smiled. "Want to request a song?"

"Necricuss," Sage declared. "Dispel Glamour! Pierce the Veil. Part Binding!"

In the Vistacast projection, I saw a flicker of something flash from the book in the direction of Nessy. For a split second, her face wobbled, and the binding glamour over her left eye—the one concealing Candace's silver iris—shattered. The crowd didn't seem to notice the change, since most of them were gathered on the platform behind Nessy.

The Owl boy recoiled as if he'd been slapped.

"What?" Vivianne demanded. "Why is her one eye silver?"

"It's high-order Animancy!" Sage gasped, gray feathers fluttering. "Necricuss says that her soul... it's intertwined with another prad's!"

"Ness! What have they done to you?!" Viv snarled.

"Who's done what?" Nessy tilted her head.

"That damned Binder fox! Rhinehart!" Vivianne barked. "I knew this was going to happen! I told you not to hang out with that fox fuck and that human, but noooo…"

The raptor sisters, seeing their opportunity, immediately pounced on the accusation.

"Ha!" Katherine's malicious laugh cut in like a sharp knife. "Of course! I knew it! The pathetic mutt doesn't have the backbone to talk back like that on her own! She's been turned into a meat puppet by that junkie fox!"

Kirra joined in. "Ha! Deffo! Rhinehart and that trash human outsider, Foster, are using her, controlling her like she's some kind of wind-up toy! Stringin' the dum dog for their own twisted amusement! She smells like she spent the night with 'em!"

The raptor sisters' words, amplified by their natural authority and social standing, rippled through the onlookers. Murmurs of shock and outrage danced across the gathered crowd.

"Rhinehart's a known troublemaker," Scarlet added loudly. "And Foster? He's a claimed human gangster! They're part of a gang trying to infiltrate our lovely town!"

"They forced themselves into our school, somehow got into our advanced delving class and attacked us!" Kirra added. "Who knows what they're planning? They must have some kind of agenda, some vile purpose!"

Sage and Viv looked horrified, their earlier concern for Nessy curdling into righteous fury directed at me and Candace.

"They need to be stopped!" Viv declared. "This is beyond a simple prank… this is soul-tampering! Sister Zheniya! We need your help!"

Before Nessy could defend herself, the monks moved with a swift, coordinated grace that belied their size. Two of the massive wolf monks flashed onto the gazebo and grabbed Nessy by the arms.

"Hey! Unhand me! I…!" Nessy-Candace began.

Sister Zheniya flashed to Nessy's side. The wolf's expression was calm and focused. In her hand, she held some kind of an obsidian pyramid, pulsating with a cold, blue-black radiance that drew colors around itself from existence.

"Hold still, child," Zheniya said. "This is for your own good. We will sever the magic that holds you hostage. Nullify!"

"No, I…" Nessy yelped.

The Krishna Sister pressed the nullifier pyramid against Nessy's forehead.

The Vistacast projection in my hotel room fizzled and died, the image collapsing into a shower of silver sparks that winked out, plunging the room into a sudden, tense silence.

"Fuck!" Adelle swore, leaping upright like a cat who encountered a sudden cucumber.

A choked gasp came from the bed. Candace's eyes flew open, wide with panic. She clutched her head, her body trembling violently.

"The angels!" she shrieked, her voice high and panicked. "Slayer! Archangels! They're piloting them! All of them! Abyss damn it all!"

"What angels?" I demanded, moving to her side as Adelle rushed to hold her steady. "Candace, what are you talking about?"

"The monks!" she gasped, her gray eyes darting around the room as if searching for unseen threats. "They're… they're being piloted by Astral Angels!"

"What?" I pressed, trying to make sense of her panicked words.

Candace took a deep, shuddering breath, reeling from the forced separation and whatever she had just witnessed. "When Zheniya used that nullifier, it didn't just break the soul-bond... it created a momentary nullification backlash. An Astral shockwave that tore through magic and revealed hidden things. For a split second, I saw the truth," she hissed angrily, "they're all being piloted, Alec. All of them. There are... things... outside of them and in them."

"Things?" Adelle prompted. "What are you on about Loops?"

"Giant... mushroom things," Candace stammered out. "Glowing fungi, with what looked like thousands of tendrils that burrowed into their hosts' brains, nerves, spines, everywhere. Archangels. They're defined as Archangels of Krishna in the Astral. That's why the monks are all so big and strong without doing much delving—it's not natural growth, it's the parasite screwing with their bodies. Something that has to do with… feeding on sacrifice."

Glacial dread washed over me as her words connected with what Nessy had said about the Well of Severance. "They're sacrificing more than just memories," I said.

"They're sacrificing everything," Candace confirmed. "Prohibition… The Archangels are Astral parasites… feeding on prohibition! Love, passion, desire, entertainment, free will, their very souls. They eventually trade it all for what the Archangels offer them by making more and more magic Vows!"

"What do those fucks even offer?" Adelle asked, quickly pulling the silver dress on.

Candace looked at us, her glowing, brilliantly silver eyes filled with a terror so profound it seemed to eclipse everything else.

"Power," she uttered, silver fractals spinning in her corneas. "Strength. And the promise of a world without pain. The promise of breaking the cycle of Samsara! Of escaping the binding loops to be reborn on Goloka Vrindavan… a Citadel on Arx! We have to stop them! We have to get Ness from them before they drag her to their temple and erase her love!"

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