From his most recent struggles, entering the power core to its conclusion, Daniel had gained several things. Three more advancement potential, bringing his reserves up to four. Custody of one Bekali Tiltfeather, still out of it after being cleansed of corruption. A viable way of reaching Earth, if he could find a consistent way to enter the Arcadian. His lost friends. A brother. And, a sister.

Standing on the broken floor of the room, Daniel breathed deeply and tried to keep his rage in check. He didn't have a rage power in human form, but it felt like he'd suddenly awakened ten of them. "Tell me again, Lograve."

The Arcanist shifted uncomfortably, more from guilt than any heat Daniel was throwing toward him. "We've been over this, and you have my endless apologies. That man, it can be said he earned a chance at betrayal. Not that I in any way condone what he did."

"Who is he?" Daniel paced angrily, disturbing the ash of what Evalyn had incinerated.

"He never said, only that he was someone who had benefited from false reincarnation. Someone like you." Lograve shook his head. "A mirror of a soul sent into a body just before it dies, rebinding it to the world. It makes one wonder what other secrets the magic of the greater cosmos hides. Though, from the perspectives of Rorshawd and the human that was once Chris, it is referred to as reverse reincarnation instead."

"I don't care about pedantics. How do we know what he did was to help us? He was fucking bankrolling and directing Hourglass' plan on Earth!" It was a near thing, but what had happened to Alex only just overshadowed the revelation that Garret Brant had never really existed.

The full truth had yet to be pulled from 'Chris', but from what they'd gathered, Hourglass had used false reincarnation to possess a human on Earth sometime before Kara had met him. For what purpose he didn't know, only that Cloak had some idea. At the very least, Hunter had been able to confirm Hourglass as the villain. Grave had recognized Daniel's Spoke as belonging to him while in the Astral and later told Hunter that the time god had given the Illustrious the opportunity to slay him.

"We'll get to the bottom of this. Of everything. I promise you that. You and your sister…" Lograve looked down and away, every bit of his normal rambunctiousness dried out. "She will be given every kindness. I will demand it from Soraso himself that her protection is prioritized. We can give her more high level items, shelter her."

"That's not enough!"

"Respectfully, Daniel, what is enough?" He gestured to the room around them. "How many more miracles do you have saved up? We tried for hours to find a way around it. I'm telling you this as your friend, who despite everything is extraordinarily grateful to see you again, that it is time to stop running in circles. We need to return to Threst, inform Murdon and Soraso of what we've discovered, and consider the issue again once we are better informed and rested."

"Fine," Daniel seethed. "But before that, there are still things all of you need to know. We'll start with how, until recently, Soraso was the biggest bastard I knew."

…

What she had left of her entire life was in her hands. The bag of holding was Daniel's, given to her to transport the things she'd taken to Eido. A violin. Some books, a framed photo. Her useless phone. Lograve had lamented that his laptop and tablet refused to turn on once on the other side of the portal, but there were only words on those. Her photos and old performance recordings, to say nothing of the saved voicemails from her father, were gone as long as she was here.

So, forever.

Alex had yet to entertain the idea that her father hadn't been who she'd thought he was. Garret had never, at any time, shown anything but love for her. Never missed a recital. Helped with every bake sale, going so far as to buy and eat a sizable amount of the product himself. The measure of his life on her own had been such that despite this upheaval being so raw, she would have chosen to come here rather than lose him.

How well she understood the choice her brother had made at that moment. The pain the one she shared this world with suffered. No spark had risen within her. She had not screamed as Ami had done, before or after her mother had been dragged away by Gadriel before the portal closed. Lograve had come across at one point when they'd gotten desperate to find a way to send her back, and from then on the ritual was dependent on his mana and would have ended entirely if he crossed back over.

They'd almost accidentally closed it forever until someone had the head to stop him from going back to Eido since all of his powers would've been suppressed. Whatever had happened to sustain some of them didn't work once they had made one crossing. The portal lasted for a few minutes after that, and the Hero had been the only one who had chosen to stay behind on Earth.

A shield was on her arm, or the bracelet that summoned it at least. They'd told her it was more powerful than anything any of them carried, aside from the sword. That… they hadn't given her. She thought she knew the reason why, and though she had no thoughts in that direction, she was still glad for its absence. It would just be another thing digging into her legs as she clutched them, head bowed to hide her feeble tears.

One of the half-birds sat near, but not close to her. They'd moved her eventually, Alex barely feeling it as she was teleported into some kind of armory. The woman who'd introduced herself as Willow and sounded as if they could have just graduated from her- from her former class had tried to be comforting. It had worked for a little bit, but there was nothing to solve the icy grip horror had on her heart.

Alex had moved beyond the point that she was waiting for the punchline of the joke. You were supposed to be done once you hit acceptance, but maybe all that meant was she'd feel this way forever. How had Daniel survived here for so long when the weight of it was threatening to crush her into the floor?

Her skin tingled as a strand of thread fell onto her and one of her fingers reflexively brushed it off. Parts of the wall were covered in nearly invisible sections of it. The one responsible had left when she entered the room. Something else Alex would have taken notice or fear of any normal time.

Eyes temporarily unshielded, Alex caught the small flash of light as someone materialized in the room. Evalyn. Someone else missing their sister, though in that case the plan was to bring them through once there was a safe way to move people. Peeking above both of her arms, she watched the two others in the room exchange a glance, Willow shaking her head.

"Alex." Evalyn waited until she'd fully looked up before continuing, if only to make sure her words were heard. "I… I don't have the words. All I am here to do is tell you that I wouldn't want to be awake right now. If you want me to, only then, I can use a power to help you get to sleep. It's gentle, and it's one I used on my sister when we lived together here. Daniel has needed it before."

Sleep sounded nice. "No."

"Ok. What can I do to help you?" There was an obvious, hurtful answer that Alex didn't give. Partly because she considered the Bard a friend, but mostly because everything she did hurt. She would have taken the offer if she wasn't terribly afraid of where she'd be when she woke up. Something as simple as the ability to go where she wanted was a luxury she'd taken for granted. At least in Eido there'd been the chance to go back to the States the rare time that man left for supplies.

Alex sat there for a few minutes, the other two shifting without speaking, before she spoke. "How did he cope with this?"

"Friends," Evalyn answered hopefully. "And you have those here, along with people who love you. I was there from almost the beginning. I think without Hunter or Lograve, or Thomas," she added with what sounded like a concession, "He wouldn't have. You have so many more who will support you. It's the barest, slightest consolation, I know, but we will take care of you. I swear it on my sister's life."

Another echo that reached the ears of something at the heart of existence. This one rang truer, yet the same result occurred. Bonds were not something to be handed out lightly. "I…" Willow's voice grew hesitant after the first syllable, but persisted after a nod from Evalyn. They barely knew each other but were allies all the same. "I lost my parents recently, and my sister…" Willow wisely decided to avoid details. "She's had tragedies too. I don't stop thinking about them. I've been able to live because I have a purpose. A calling. I think if I can make the world better through that, then at least that would mean they've left a positive impact too."

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Alex hazily remembered the floating ball of light she'd been introduced to, but it all ultimately blended together into the nightmare her life had become. Evalyn spoke up then, seizing on the point. "You are talented, Alex. Better than I am. You know so much, and I know plenty of people would love to learn from you."

That cut into her. For a moment Alex imagined showing someone like Willow how to hold a bow. Her mother… her mother had looked into how the different races were biologically. In a betrayal of all her despair, Alex found herself wondering how that same student would play a brass or woodwind instrument. What had led Evalyn to choose an accordion of all things? Somehow that hadn't come up yet, but then again her true instrument had been locked inside of her until now. Did people with different instruments get different magic?

Could she? Did she want to? The Daniel on this end had pointed a weapon at Chris with every intention of using it, she'd known. What had happened to make him like that, and would it happen to her? Alex normally had a temper, true, but she was not a violent person. She looked at the two other women in the room, and even the sweet kid nearly a decade younger than her had the feeling of someone who could kill if she had to.

There was nothing for it. Artists all needed passion, no matter the medium, and all emotion could feed into that. Evalyn's words had turned Alex's mind to the topic, and where before she couldn't bring herself to look at her instrument, now it could only be in her hands. Under the gaze of the other two, later joined by that white ball and a small red bird no one commented on, Alex took her violin and began to play.

…

The marathon to end all explanations stretched through the night as revelations spawned countless questions that had to be resolved in turn. What might have been a tense but joyous reunion was cast in dark light, and not all the will in the world to end things quickly could speed up what had to be said. Most of it was from Daniel, who had to go over gods, the Astral, and everything in between. He was tired by the end, but it wasn't time for rest yet.

"I'm staying behind for a bit," he told the group as they prepared to teleport back to the armory. Evalyn had returned and said Alex had finally gotten to sleep. There was something odd to the way she carried her instrument on the way back, as if the already bulky object was made from a neutron star, but Daniel didn't have the energy to question it. He was saving all he had left for one thing.

"Want me to stay?" Hunter asked, having long since returned to his normal form.

"No. Thank you, Hunter, but I need to be alone for this." The ringcat nodded solemnly, fully willing but unable to relieve Daniel of his pain. No one else dared suggest he go with them.

Daniel stood alone within the ruins of an ancient civilization and heard only his breathing. The rift itself made no noise, only casting off a faint light that swirled with the colors he and Hunter shared. Of everything he'd learned since coming here, there'd still been no explanation for that. Maybe it was just a sign they'd been fated to meet.

He hated to look at them now as he held his Focus, removed from the shield. He hated the god who had given it to him, but far less than the twice-giver of the necklace. In a way, Chris was the hardest to hate because of how little he knew about him, but Daniel was making a solid attempt regardless. His thoughts right now weren't on any of those three.

"You're a fucking joke." His hand squeezed the Focus but there was quite literally no way for him to break it, even if he charged Elemental Onslaught forever. "You run an entire world, and you can't do one simple fucking thing!?"

Daniel hurled the phone away, aware it wasn't the true target of his anger either. He began shouting at the metallic sky, voice echoing in the closed chamber. "You told me that those laws could be violated! I did it myself minutes before it happened, so why not fucking now!? Why her? They're not the same person! Are you too fucking blind to see that?"

Not really thinking, Daniel pulled his blast bow out and shot it at the rift, imagining it was Chris' face. He dealt it absolutely no damage. "Or you just don't care. You're a fucking computer whose programmers are either fucked or trying to fuck off. You're so much of a goddamn failure the people, the things that created you want to abandon you. And why shouldn't they? How many times have the monsters broken you like a fucking toy, millions of people dying because you couldn't do your one job? Just blue screen already and get it over with."

He knew, deep down, he was projecting. And in point of fact telling the system governing the world to shut down was a very bad idea, but he didn't care. Whether it liked it or not, the Octyrrum was one of the things keeping his sister trapped here. Keeping him trapped here, but that wasn't what was hurting him. "I…" his voice caught. "I didn't think it could get any worse."

Daniel flamed out and he crashed to the ground. It took a few minutes of angry tears, and a few more of telekinetically tossing pieces of rubble aimlessly, before he stood up again with a changed look on his face. "Alright. You're listening now, right? I know you have to be because you're in my soul, and that's on fire. I haven't felt like I've had a fever since I got here, and I know I'm not sick. So you listen to me if you're worth a single scrap of mana. Alex Brant. Want me to say it how you'll fucking understand it? Creature: Alex Brant. Because that's what people are to you, 'creatures'."

Plucking his phone from the ground and navigating to the home screen, Daniel showed it to the rift for all that that would help. "That's her, right there. I know you're smart enough for that." He locked it then and put it away, unable to look at who else was in the photo. "You helped me earlier, but that's because you had to. Count the number of times I've asked something like you for help, from the dragons to Casia, and how many times you did anything you didn't have to. Go ahead, count them! I'll even give you a whole ten minutes."

He didn't. "You know what the last thing on that list says? 'Didn't send Daniel's sister back home.' No. You decided she'd be better off torn away from her family, stuck in a world where monsters are eating the fucking walls!" His tone grew more steady, but more dangerous, as Daniel started to say what truly mattered. "Now I have to go help you put all this shit back together. I still don't know why, but Cloak needs me to know where every god's body is. Guess it's a little 'get the band back together' quest. Well, it is a quest, and I'm doing you a fucking favor. I know you're not going to do something like kill my enemies for me or tell me a single fucking thing without making me spend minutes searching through the worst Encyclopedia anyone in the entire multiverse designed. So I'll ask you to do something else for my reward, and you'll do it starting now."

Daniel punctuated each word in the next sentence by slamming a fist into his other hand. "Alex. Brant. Is. Special. I don't care what rules you have. If there is any gray area, any room for interpretation, every single decision is in her favor. If she decides to get a class, you give her the best goddamn class she can get. If some fuck like Kahvin Talongleam thinks he can throw a charm on her, you blow his fucking head off. Because if you don't, and she dies, if anything happens to her, the first thing I'm going to do is shout your secrets from the fucking rooftops. Hell, I'll sing them so my phone can broadcast it. To the tune of 'We Didn't Start the Fire'. The second thing I'm doing is killing Cloak's Proxy. You don't want that, right? Then he's stuck with Hammer, and nobody wants to be alone in a room with that guy."

If telling the system governing the world it should shut down was the worst idea ever, what he was doing now was verging on attempted suicide. Who cared. "The third thing? I think it's a tie between telling the Spiritualists where the other gods are, and asking if Earth-Daniel has enough money to buy a black market nuke. Need me to tell you what that is or are you in my head too?"

He paused for effect, knowing there wouldn't be an answer. "If so, you know what my next steps would be. You have a very simple way to make sure I'm not your enemy. I'd go so far as to say you have a hostage, because that's the kind of fuckery I'm dealing with now. Alex Brant is special, because she didn't deserve this." His fury could have sustained him for hours, and impressed his sister, but there were no other words to say. The threat, and it was a legitimate threat, had been made. It was Daniel's best idea for greasing the wheels of the world, and he wouldn't have used that opportunity to ask for anything else.

Teleporting to the armory, he took in the auras of everyone inside. Willow and Tlara side by side, Spinner somewhat awkwardly hunching down nearby. The space was too small for her but it was just for tonight. Lograve, still reading in one of the side rooms and watching what might be a prisoner. A loose collection of Khiat, Shuni, and Sigron, the three that had saved his ass alongside Tlara when he'd almost lost his chance in the power core.

Evalyn and Tak, quietly discussing near the secured entrance. He still couldn't believe Tak had spent most of his time on Eido transformed into his monstrous state, or Evalyn in Investiture of Song. How Tak had gotten that power before the monster system had fully broken free he had no idea. Something to do with his Spiritualist origins? For a moment he felt bad the Totem Warrior hadn't been able to say goodbye to his cat, but it would be a godsend if that was the worst of the emotional turmoil here.

Bekali Tiltfeather, the enigma. Practically forgotten at this point and resting too, Evalyn managing to fully put her down again. This time with Lullaby. The understanding was that once they were out of the ruins, she didn't exist. Soraso being untrustworthy made the former Regent of Threst a liability in addition to being hundreds of years old. Also, currently the only sustainable way to get back into the ruins without the gestalt, assuming she could still use True Enchanting.

Lastly. Lastly. Hunter, resting curled up next to where Alex had fallen asleep. Her arm had settled unconsciously along his neck to end below his head as she slept. The reminder of how he'd spent the nights after Hunter's first words was strange, and comforting. He couldn't look at them and not think of both as family in equal degree. If he'd tried to form a clean bond of brotherhood with Hunter now, it'd probably have worked.

Daniel got on his back and leaned his head against Hunter's chest, not disturbing either from their sleep. His eyes gazed at the featureless ceiling as his mind spun down, deeper and deeper, until one last thought gave some warmth to his soul. His past might be a lie, his future uncertain, his sister falling to the same curse as him, but if there was one thing it was certain of, it was this. Nobody here was on their own.

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