"How is any of this your fault?" I asked.

"I don't know," she whimpered. "But everything feels connected. The dreams, you, the Quest... It's like I'm at the center of something terrible that I can't exactly remember. If I wasn't so damn weak, if I just believed in my dreams, waited longer for you to show up… if I didn't let Vivianne drag me to the Hare Krishna temple, you wouldn't have gone to the highway, wouldn't be bound in an impossible, inescapable Quest, wouldn't…"

She broke down into sobs.

"Hey," I said gently, sitting beside her. "Ness. Come on, it's not your fault. I made my own choices."

"Incredibly stupid choices," Kristi added.

"Yes, thank you," I shot her a look. "Very supportive."

"Incredibly daring choices," Candace hummed, tapping her chin. "Choices that bound us together in inescapable loops. Two triangles. Me n' Addie from one side facing Alec. Ness and Kristi from the other. Wait… hold up. That's…"

"Ughhh, please don't go there," Adelle's half-asleep voice commented from the van.

"A Dagaz loop!" Candace clapped her hands. "Slayer! You… him, me, us… we're all bound together. Two pyramids facing each other. Alec at the center. It's a Dagaz Rune! An inescapable fate… set in motion by…"

She fell silent, white whiskers twitching. Then she rushed over to Nessy's side and grabbed the husky girl's hands, staring into her eyes.

"What?" Nessy blinked.

"Shhh," Candace said, her eyes igniting silver. "Lemme see."

"See what?" The husky blinked at the fox.

"Everything," Candace said, her voice distant. "The origin of it all. The Binder of this loop."

Candace's silver-white hands, still holding Nessy's, started to tremble. Her normally sly expression went slack, gray eyes went wide and unfocused, the silver light within them blazing into an almost blinding supernova of pure, raw magical energy. Fractals of non-euclidean geometry erupted around her and reality near her seemed to bend, wobble and warp.

Dagaz loops entwined from Dagaz loops rushed across the ground and her body.

A low moan escaped Candace's lips, her body stiffening. "The loop…" she whispered, her voice raspy and distant, "It's not just a claim… It's… oh, Slayer… THE Slayer…"

"What… what's going on?!" Nessy yelped, trying to pull her hands away, but Candace's grip was like iron.

"The Leviathan!" Candace gasped, her head snapping back. "Wormwood Star… falling FOREVERMORE… the end of everything… everything breaks… except the concept of love…!" Her voice cracked, a fleck of foamy spittle appearing at the corner of her mouth. "It's so pure… so reinforced, that it cannot be stopped! Not by death, not by the void, not by the Numbers! An absolute weapon written into existence… a gun designed to kill a god… a weapon of the darkling one… the renegade System Wizard…"

Kristi and I exchanged horrified glances. Adelle, jolted awake by the sudden surge of magical energy and Candace's strangled cries, scrambled out of the van with a startled, "Fucking hell!"

"It's you!" Candace shrieked, her gaze fixed on Nessy but seeing something far beyond. "It's always been you! The anchor! The heart! And him!" Her head swiveled unnervingly towards me, her silver eyes blazing with an intensity that felt like it was peeling back layers of my soul. "The tree! The roots! The branches of duplicate souls entwining, reaching across realities! She died to save you. You… you killed HER to save everything, to reset everything! You wished… for Systemfall! Are you happy, Slayer?! ARE YOU SATISFIEFSHHH WITFHHH YOUR WISHSHHH?!"

She frothed at the mouth, letting go of Nessy and falling backwards.

Adelle leapt from the van's door to grab the frothing fox. "Not this shit again."

"Again?" I blinked.

Adelle physically pulled Candace away from Nessy, who sat frozen in shock, and dragged the silver fox back into the van. Once there, the cheetah gently settled Candace on her lap and began stroking her head methodically.

"Sorry about that," Adelle sighed, continuing to pet the fox who was still mumbling incoherently. "She gets like this sometimes when she does deep Astral diving."

"What is she talking about?" Nessy asked, her voice small and frightened.

"Beats me," Adelle shrugged. "When she gets like this, she rants about the end of everything, Slayer, wishes, endless loops, numbers, System Wizards, etc. Usual Binder nonsense when they stare too deep into the magical Abyss underneath reality."

Candace continued to mutter from Adelle's lap as her eyes faded from pure, glowing violet-silver back to their usual gray. "...a love so pure it cannot be stopped, not by death, not by time, not by the Systemfall itself... you found each other again because I, because we… Triangle of absolute Love… entwined souls… because you… because you, her, him, them, us… were meant to find each other… again and again… forever… no matter what."

"See?" Adelle rolled her eyes, petting the trembling silver fox. "Complete gibberish. Just ignore it. She'll be back to normal, eventually. An hour tops. It's just… Astral overload, or whatever the fuck. Sees too much, fries her circuits. Shhh, Loops. It's okay. You're okay."

Candace was still muttering, though her voice was fainter now, her body trembling. "Love… so pure… an absolute anchor against the void… a Dagaz that… infinity… she died to save him… he became an Astral tree to find her… Astral cordyceps fungus blooming across the Underside, seeking her out… always… always… forever… no matter what comes…"

Her eyes fluttered closed, and she went limp in Adelle's arms, a thin trickle of blood seeping from her nose. The edges of Candace's hair lost their silver luster, becoming painted with rainbow-blue streaks.

The rest of us stood in stunned silence.

"That's… Topaz poisoning," Kristi stated, looking at the shimmering blue flocks.

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"It's not her fault," Adelle said. "The world is fucked, infested by Systemfall. The T-dust helps her not see all the cosmic horror bullshit, but she's been clean for two days now… so she's doing it again."

"Why has she been clean?" Nessy asked.

"Because she feels really bad," the cheetah said. "About what we did to Alec. About how she held him while I sliced him up. As do I. We really went overboard. Me n' Donutz, we're damaged goods. The longer she goes on without Topaz, the deeper she's gonna slide into… this. First time she tried to scan something too deep, I thought she was gonna die, never wake up again."

Nessy looked at the trembling fox.

Her blue eyes flashed with determination as she opened and closed her fist, as if making a decision.

"This is my fault," she muttered, climbing into the van. "All of it. But I'm not going to give up again. Never again. I'm done running from my feelings."

She settled beside Adelle, who was still cradling Candace protectively. With gentle movements, Nessy placed her black and white paws on either side of Candace's head, her fingers lightly touching the fox's temples.

"What are you doing?" Adelle growled, tightening her grip on her packmate.

"Helping," Nessy said simply. "Riffweld isn't just for battle or entertainment. It can heal, too."

"You can help her?" Adelle asked.

"I can… try," Nessy nodded. "It's just music, it won't hurt her."

"Fine," the cheetah said. "Do your thing, dog."

She closed her eyes and began to hum. The sound started low and soft, almost imperceptible, but gradually built into a melody that seemed to resonate with something deeper than mere hearing. I felt it in my chest, in my bones, in the branches of that strange tree-consciousness I'd been discovering within myself.

As Nessy's voice grew stronger, her tail and claws thumped against the floor of the van creating metallic and wooden background drums and riffs, a melody took shape into a song, the words flowing from her as naturally as breathing:

"Fractals in the darkness spinning, Caught between what's lost and winning, Rest your weary mind tonight, Let the chaos fade from sight.

Binding loops that strangle tightly, Chains of fate that hold unsightly, I release you from their grasp, Break their hold with every gasp."

As Nessy sang, something extraordinary happened. The rainbow-blue streaks in Candace's fur began to recede. The fox's breathing evened out.

"Dagaz rune of dawn approaching, Freedom's light on pain encroaching, Balance found between two worlds, As your spirit gently unfurls.

What you've seen beyond the veil, Let it drift like ships that sail, Far across a distant sea, Not your burden now to be."

The husky's voice rose another octave resonating impossibly inside the van's interior.

"Ancient knots now slowly waning, Find the peace that's yours for taking, Return to us from distant Astral shores, Remember what you're fighting for.

Remember faces, names and places, Hearts connected through all spaces, We will face what comes together, No matter what, no matter whether.

Breathe in light and breathe out sorrow, Trust there will still be tomorrow, You are safe, you are not alone, Follow my voice and find your way back home!"

Nessy sang out and hummed, swaying and tapping Candace's temples with her claws.

The song had also affected me in ways I couldn't articulate, like it was calling to parts of me I didn't know existed, awakening memories that weren't quite memories, some part of me from another life.

Candace's eyes fluttered open. They were clear gray again, no trace of the manic expression or silver light that had consumed them moments before.

"What happened?" she asked weakly, looking up at Adelle and Nessy.

"You had another episode," the cheetah explained gently. "But doggo here seems to have pulled you out earlier with some fancypants singing."

Candace turned her head to look at Nessy. "You... helped me? Why?"

"Because that's what packmates do," Nessy said. "They help each other. And because whatever's happening to all of us... I think we're meant to face it together."

"The Dagaz loop you were ranting about?" Kristi asked, leaning against the van's doorframe.

"Yes," Candace nodded. "It's not just the claim mark I put on Alec. There's something older, something truly eldritch between Alec n' Ness. Something... fundamental. Inevitable. The kind of a loop that I cannot unbind."

"Yes, yes, loops and other freaky real deep shit," Adelle commented, stretching out. "Can you like deal with it without frothing at the mouth and waking me up every five minutes?"

"Maybe," Candace wiggled her ears. "Ughhh, my head still feels like a throbbing drum."

"You've got Topaz in your body," Kristi said.

"Wut? Nu-huh," the fox shook her head. "I unbound it from myself."

"We saw the tips of your hair," the raptor girl added. "They blue."

Candace's entire body went rigid at Kristi's accusation. Her silver tail bristled, and her eyes narrowed to slits.

"No," she snapped, her voice taking on a sharp, defensive edge. "That's impossible. I unbound it. All of it. Every last molecule!"

"Your hair tips were literally rainbow-blue," Kristi insisted, crossing her arms. "I know what Topaz poisoning looks like, Rhinehart. Half the delvers at Ferguson High have experimented with it. You might think that you've unbound it all, but that shit is extradimensional and builds up in body and soul."

The fox girl growled, jumping off the cheetah's lap.

"Growl all you want," Kristi shrugged. "It doesn't change the facts. I know Topaz eats away at your mind over time. I know it makes Binders see things in the Astral that aren't really there. And I know it's why your parents were trying to put you in that rehabilitation program this summer—"

"SHUT UP!" Candace shrieked, her claws extending. "You don't know anything about my parents or why they wanted to lock me away!"

Adelle caught the fox by her shoulders before she could lunge at Kristi. "Whoa, Candy, chill. Breathe."

"Let me go!" Candace struggled against the cheetah's grip, her eyes wild with sudden rage. "She doesn't get to judge me! None of you do!"

"Candace, down," I ordered. "No need to maul us, we care about your well being."

"I… unbound it! I always unbind it," she growled, her eyes sparkling with tears at the edges.

"Then why were your hair tips blue?" Nessy asked softly.

Candace stopped struggling, her expression crumpling into something vulnerable and lost. "I... I don't know. Maybe... maybe I missed some. It happens sometimes when I go deep. The Astral... it's bigger than any of us realize. Looking into it is like trying to count all the stars in the sky. Maybe I… missed some stuff. It doesn't matter, I'll find and unbind it! I'm good!"

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