Attempted arrest. Library. A broken bond. Drones. Propositions. Ringcats frozen in time. Daniel had survived the gauntlet only to find another challenge waiting at the end, having snuck behind in an attempt to stab him in the kidney.

His sister was advancing uncontrollably and was in real danger of accidentally taking a class if the theoretical mountain of advancement potential she'd somehow acquired pushed her through another improvement to charisma. That was bad.

No, really, it was. Daniel knew from discussing with Cloak on Willow's class that the state you were in could influence the class you received when you awakened it. It had to do with archetypes and how the Octyrrum related to them. In the old days, this wasn't a problem because the limited number of classes meant you'd probably get what you would have regardless of mental state.

Most of the gods getting trapped in the divine pavilion, cut off from the rest of the world in a time bubble, had reset the Octyrrum to its backup state when it couldn't reach enough of its administrators. Every baseline version of the classes they'd developed were stored there. Now there were so many, you had to be careful about reaching 10 with your first attribute.

Alex was one step away, one explosion of justifiable anger and grief that was made all the worse by how her sense of advancement potential provoked her. Avoiding use of the magic power of this world was no longer an option for her; the only kindness they could do was try and help her control her advancements and put off gaining a class until she was ready. Perhaps they could defuse the situation by spreading out however many points she had into her other attributes, but in the end there was no way they could convince her to stop playing the violin. Daniel wouldn't let anyone try that.

But he did have to break the news. Quala had offered, though in that way where it was obvious it was the wrong decision. If he'd said yes she'd probably have replied with something like 'ok, if you're sure,' and then started walking out of the room slower than Hunter had been moving last he'd seen him.

Alex had to learn how to properly advance. It didn't have to be anything more than that, but she did need to take that step of acceptance of this world. Daniel might have been the worst person in the world to teach her, but he was the only one who had a shot at convincing her.

Daniel reached for the door separating him from his sister and knocked twice. "Alex, it's me. Can I come in?"

"…yeah."

She sounds calmer, at least, Daniel thought. As he opened the door he looked outside and saw the sun was already setting. At least today is ending soon. Tomorrow can't be much worse.

He stood in what was much in a way the same as his room, furnished with a bed, desk, and wide window. The main difference was that it was on the first floor. "I'm sorry," Alex said, from where she was huddled up on the bed. "For what I said before. I just, with everything, I can't… I don't know if I can ever deal with this." She looked at the courtyard and pointed to a spot Daniel recognized. "I watched you stand right there and stare down, what, the governor of this place? Mayor? And you won."

"It's not too much to hope you'll believe I've just always been that awesome?" Daniel ventured, trying to lighten the mood.

"Come on, Daniel, when you were 12 it took you two days to tell Mom and Dad that Ami had 'convinced' you to 'share' your new phone since hers was a couple years older." Alex closed her eyes, but the mention of her twin didn't evoke what Daniel might have feared. "Took you until you were 18 to tell Dad you didn't like camping either."

That was a charged statement. The kind that definitely would have led to an argument the last time he'd seen her, but things had changed. Instead, she just kept looking out the window. "Can you tell Quala I'm sorry too? Talking with her, I just, she encouraged me to speak freely."

"Classic mistake," Daniel jibed. "She knows you didn't mean whatever it was you said."

"I still don't like that I said it." Alex closed one of her hands and squeezed it. "I had this under control, I'd never be able to deal with high schoolers otherwise. When those men came and assaulted Ami and me, I could walk around the next day without blowing up at whoever said hi to me. This is worse, but I'm worse too. It's like this place has taken years of therapy away and I'm back to square one." Her clenched hand hit the mattress once. "Talking with Quala, it did help get my head somewhere better. I felt more like me afterward."

I'm sure venting advancement potential helped too, Daniel thought, Quala's theory in the back of his mind. "Alex, this might seem like an odd question, but could you share how much advancement potential you have with me?"

She scrunched her face as she turned to him, and neither was Daniel that confident in what he was asking. He'd asked for practically every other system-related piece of information from someone else before, including entire power lists, but no one had asked him to see if they had any potential left after advancing. Neither had he a reason to see until now.

"What the hell are you talking about?" The question had almost disturbed her, as if Daniel had asked where her second head was and she was trying to figure out the joke.

"I have a power that can identify people," Daniel explained gently. "It sees things like level, race, and names automatically. Quala has a theory about how you're feeling and I'm trying to confirm it."

"And this, what, advancement potential?" Daniel nodded to confirm the term. "Is part of it? How do I even-"

"You just did," Daniel replied, then gaped at the number he saw at the top of Alex's attributes.

Advancement Potential: 8

Moment of Clarity. Spoke, did you do this? Daniel asked into the void while time slowed to an almost imperceptible rate.

Gravely, stately, the answer, uh, did not come. Noooo. Why? Hunter moaned internally.

Oh fuck, sorry Hunter. Daniel instantly canceled the ability, unused to having people to share it with again. Neither did his Spoke answer him, if it could. No, there's no way that worked. Like hell it listened to me that one time after it had ignored everything else.

"Daniel?" Alex asked, now taken aback by his initial reaction. "What is it?"

"You have, uh, a lot." Ruling out interference from the Spoke, there was only one rational conclusion Daniel could come to. "I heard that you played your violin after you got here. You can get more powerful by doing stuff that relates to a class before you get one, and you got a lot. More than I did for fighting a dragon. The only thing that makes sense is that the Spoke must have retroactively awarded you for every performance you did on Earth."

Alex glanced at the case of her instrument, heartbroken. "So it's already too late? Not that it changes anything, but I look at you, and…"

"Yeah, I get it. I had a bit of a shock the first time I saw Earth-Daniel too." Ruefully, Daniel added, "That wasn't the only reason, but seeing how different we were after only a few months, yeah. But it's not too late, not for you to have control over this."

"This computer game of a world is pumping me full of magic. What control do I have?" she countered, though again, with less fire than when they'd talked about this in the Arcadian. Part of it had to be the Quala Effect, though Daniel also knew it was harder to serially advance. The eight freaking potential inside of Alex must have calmed down after their ninth brethren had been absorbed into her charisma.

"What you do with it." Daniel explained the basics of attributes, though Alex had gotten a version of this already while on Eido. It broke down when they got to the pitch. "You've already advanced, Alex. I think you have me tied for the most advancement potential stored, and when you aren't weird like me, that can do things to you. It's like chugging a gallon of energy drinks and expecting to be able to sit still on the couch. If you don't use the energy, it's going to use you."

"So I'm screwed either way?" Alex fell backward, put the pillow over her face, and half-screamed into it for a second. Still not as bad compared to her earlier explosions since it was the pillow taking the beating. After having been given time to recover, she slid the pillow around and under her neck. "You can tell me if I'm being ridiculous. Magic powers, who wouldn't want those?"

"They are pretty neat," Daniel replied reasonably, not at all thinking about the one that turned him into the true murder cat. "And there's a rule in this world. As long as you don't use a power," and as long as someone stupid like me doesn't identify it too early, he added internally, "you can evolve it into a new one when you awaken it. Evalyn has this thing where she doesn't like offensive Bard powers because you have to channel negative emotions to make them work, and she doesn't have any of those powers. If you don't want stuff that will make you fight people, you won't get it."

"What if I don't want anything that makes Mom have to wonder if I'm the same person when, if we see each other again?" That question stumped Daniel. He would've been screwed if his family had been standing in view of the portal when it'd first opened because he'd been in hybrid form. Would they have recognized him? Probably not.

"Do you think you could do anything to change how Mom feels about you?" Daniel ended up countering with his own unanswerable question, feeling they were getting somewhere. "Our family will always be our family. So what if you get even better at performing? That'll just make Ami more jealous."

"But that's not going to be all it is," Alex shot back, and at that moment, Daniel realized something. She'd spent months in an area where only four people had active powers she could look at for examples. Gadriel's arms had been constantly in pain. Evalyn had been stuck in turn-based mode. Lograve didn't have it too bad but was effectively blinded to himself. Tak… she would've seen Tak before he came back to himself.

Oh, and there was the mega sphere of annihilation that Evalyn threw out that she would've gotten a glance at. This was hardly the root of all of her hesitation, but Alex had been exposed to a very warped view of powers before coming here. Just look at Festra for an example of one with a gentler touch.

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"Why don't I show you one of my powers?" Daniel asked. "I think you haven't seen any fun ones yet."

"You're talking about flying again?" Alex asked. "I did almost freeze to death on that thing."

"Not a power, only the product of one," Daniel replied, smiling. "Here." He exposed one of his arms, Alex raising an eyebrow as he did so. She then fully sat up as feathers grew to cover the space from wrist to elbow.

"That wing thing, you can do it too!?"

"Not exactly." Daniel plucked one off and handed it to Alex, the feathers themselves being harmless unless fired. "Only they get Grow Wings, this is Grow Feathers. My arm doesn't change, it just makes these." Was the purpose to hit things with them? Sure, but Daniel would swear it was cosmetic if asked in that moment. Instead of giving Alex the chance to, he used Telekinetic Reach to levitate one. "Do, or do not. There is no try."

"You have the Force and you use a gun?" she asked incredulously.

"The Force takes a lot of mana," Daniel replied defensively as he racked his brain for any other cool non-combat powers he had. Oh, Flash Craft. Another mana expensive ability, but he was close to collapsing as it was and ready for bed when this talk was over.

Daniel shook his arm and Alex stared as the feathers he dismissed turned to dust. Carefully, he asked, "Can I see your violin? I'm not going to touch it, I just want to see it."

Alex's gaze grew guarded instantly. "That instrument costs more than some cars. I went into debt to afford it, and it's the last real piece of home I have outside my memories. You may be the superhero version of my brother, but get a smudge on it and I will stab you with this." She brandished the feather in her hand.

Daniel was… pretty sure they were harmless unless they were fired from his arm. "I just need to see it for a second."

"Alright." Alex unlatched the case but very pointedly did not take out the violin. That was still enough as far as his power was concerned, and Daniel spoke an incantation.

"Flash Craft." A physical copy of the violin, buffed to level 2 with the clearsound instrument enchantment, fell onto the bed. He couldn't get the bow too because it was a separate item, but that wasn't the point. Alex stared between the two, spellbound. "See? I can make you instruments, whatever you want, and you could get some kind of power like that, too. It's not all for fighting."

Wordlessly, she took up her bow from the case, inspecting the magical instrument. "Couldn't have made it tuned?" she grumbled at him as she prepared the instrument, Daniel frowning as he sensed an almost grim demeanor from Alex. Then she drew the bow across the strings, and perfect sound issued forth from it. It sounded exactly like the note Alex had wanted to play, and Daniel saw the sudden interest in his sister's eyes and misunderstood it.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confused, as she took her original violin and played the same note. Ask any non-audiophile the difference and they'd shrug, though he could tell through Alex's expression there was one. And then, when she played not just one but a few bars over half a minute, he felt it.

When using the Flash Crafted violin, the sounds she made were simply that. Sounds. Compared to her violin, it was hollow perfection. There shouldn't have been a difference, they looked and probably felt the same way. Yet, the Earth violin was superior. It made no sense, one was enchanted to specifically beat our normal instruments, but it lost. Was it Alex's familiarity, or had Flash Craft made the other less real somehow? He wasn't sure, but it was only when she played with the one that had come from the case that he couldn't look away from his sister.

She was beaming as she replaced her instrument and locked the case. "Thank you."

"For, uh, what? Yours was better."

"Exactly." She didn't necessarily take the enchanted violin and break it against the bed or anything, though she did hand it back to him like it was garbage. "I thought, coming here, the magic would eat everything about who I was. Make me fit, like my past didn't mean anything. But it does." She tapped her case. "It does."

"So, yes to magic?"

Alex took her case and slowly slid in under the bed protectively, as if that would stop someone like Shuni from taking it if they wanted to. "I need to think. Sleep on it. Being here is still hell. I'd be crying forever if I didn't get most of my tears out last night. But I'm glad you're here, at least."

"Me too." He slid forward and gave Alex a brief hug before getting back on his feet, looking quizzically at the violin before deciding just to dust it.

"You were sure that was the right one before you did that, right?" Alex asked him skeptically.

"Yeah, you sense magic better as you have more of it," Daniel replied, shrugging. "Also, I can't normally do that to most stuff, I was just dismissing what I had made."

"So if I flew around with your wings, you could drop me at any point?"

"N-no," Daniel hurriedly reassured. "Those are permanent items. That power lets me make one immediately, but I can only have one active."

"For magic powers, that's pretty lame," Alex teased.

"It's balanced!" He was mostly sure it was balanced. Where else would you get instant enchantment? Alex just didn't know how good his class was.

The sun was beginning to set now, which in Threst happened when it hit the middle altitude even though there was no land to block the light. Otherwise, it'd be day all the time. Let's leave it there for tonight before she asks me to pull out any more powers. "I'll let you get some sleep. Why don't we try out flying tomorrow?"

"I'll think about it," Alex said again uncertainly. She was still trapped. Nothing would change that, and this point had been evaluated extensively. If he couldn't change that, then he'd do everything to help her reach a place where she was as comfortable with this world as he was. Whether that meant taking a class or finding a way to defuse her potential before it overwhelmed her, whatever she decided.

"Goodnight, Alex."

"Goodnight, Daniel."

…

Rest had finally come. Daniel had seen to everyone he reasonably could have, swapped Beast Mode back, and then reverted to give Hunter some much needed reprieve, and felt a measure of peace as he put his back to his bed. He was alone. Hunter had gotten a separate room because they did have a lot of space.

Finally alone, finally with time to sleep. He didn't let it take him, knowing that if a certain someone was trying to reach him, this would've been the first true opportunity. "Go ahead. I'm ready."

"…you've been busy."

Daniel laughed weakly. "I don't need you to tell me that. I'm so tired my bones hurt."

Cloak appeared in his room, finally having the chance to get there to check in. He was probably worried about the same things Quala had been. "I need to know-"

"Can I talk for a second?" Daniel scooted back to sit up and saw the god watching him carefully, unsure what to make of his calm tone. The last time they'd seen each other, Daniel had sworn off cooperating with the god and then kicked down a door in his church. He was sure the power Soraso had put on him had been part of it, as well as the oath bond since Cloak had run into conflict with both, but the god hadn't acted in the best of faith. He hadn't been the most patient.

"Alright." The god remained standing, eyes carefully tracking his face and whatever the god's tuned senses were observing within him.

"You were telling me you'd never lied to me when I left. I know you've lied to other people, but I also know you've been straight with me. Not counting how much you haven't told me." That got Cloak to raise an eyebrow, but Daniel wasn't letting him off the hook that easily. He stared down the aspect of illusion. "That doesn't change the fact that you messed with my friend's minds. I'll do you the courtesy of sharing two truths of my own. I've told everyone here everything. Touch their minds, and the least you'll have to worry about is me kicking down another door."

Cloak took in a breath, alarmed. "Do you know what-"

"I know about Hourglass." That got him to shut up again. "You need me to get to where the bodies of the other gods are. I'm guessing someone like Thomas can shake them out of possessing their Proxy before the monsters or Illustrious get to them. That or you want to protect them until that effect wears off. There's either a super portal in the Arcadian my Spoke can control… or you need me to fly it to them."

The last thing he said was the only one he was unsure about, something based on circumstantial evidence, but the fact his Spoke had said 'unknown' when he'd specifically asked if the Arcadian was some kind of ship told him something was up. He stopped talking then, waiting for the god to reply.

He did, but only after rubbing at his face with one hand. "If Torch had just let you leave, I could have explained all this from the beginning. Damn her, but she didn't understand what I was doing. I couldn't exactly explain my plan in front of the enemy!" He shook his head. "Neither would they have let me use the Arcadian. You've been there, you know what it's like. With your Spoke, we could've gotten close to one of them so long as you were able to recall the right regions. But cleansing the corruption?" Cloak almost sounded in awe as he went off on a tangent. "Do you know what that means?"

"No. You never tell me anything besides what I need to know," Daniel replied with a straight face. "But I'll admit I didn't give you much of a chance to talk the last time."

"You were under… understandable stress. The bond," Cloak put carefully. "I am glad to see, by the way, that you have resolved those difficulties. I'm very interested in hearing how."

"Later." He was definitely talking about how he'd had direct contact with his Spoke, but there was something important they had to do first. "I'm willing to start over, but this has to be a partnership. You don't get to be the far off sage imparting wisdom on the wind while staying out of reach on your mountaintop. Hourglass broke whatever deals, whatever status quo there was. We're fighting to put the world back together. If you can't trust me, I can't trust you. That's the new deal."

Cloak frowned. "I've told you, there are some secrets that would undermine everything."

"Like how there've been multiple Collapses? Gods dying and being replaced?" He looked pointedly at Cloak with that. "You were mortal before. I don't know what led you to this place, probably reaching level 9 in Cleric before getting promoted, but at some point you stood where I am now. I'm not going to pretend like you weren't listening to everything we said today. You know about my sister, so you know I'm not asking just to know. If this world breaks, both she and everyone I care about here goes down with the ship."

He saw the sympathy when he mentioned Alex, and no sign of it being a false emotion. Cloak had shown what could only be called humanity on several occasions, the most notable of which had to have been his exhaustion after the monster horde attack, which had led to the god's refusal to cooperate. Whatever man had agreed to join the pantheon was still in there, and that's who Daniel was trying to reach.

"I don't… know everything," Cloak admitted eventually. "Torch, I suppose you know already that she was one of the three original gods left. They had secrets I wasn't privy to, and she protected them by removing the records from the Octyrrum itself. My role was lessened because of that, her's intruding on mine, but only until they were comfortable sharing them with me."

"Sucks not being trusted, doesn't it?"

The god's mouth wavered at that. "Some of what you want to know, I cannot tell you because I don't know. Questions you've asked me before, even, but to explain why my knowledge was inconsistent with the rest of the gods, I would have to tell you things that might have blocked you from recovering memories!" He said that with a hint of frustration. "It was the most tedious of balances, managing that along with my strictures, trying not to run afoul of your bond while fostering collaboration, all the while limited by this Proxy! You have no idea what remaining in this body for so long is doing to me!"

"So tell me," Daniel offered. "I want this to be a partnership. Not an equal one, I don't think it can be, but we can try. We trust each other, we don't wipe people's memories, and we work together on this. Like people." Daniel held out a hand. "Like friends."

Cloak laughed shortly at that, but it wasn't as dismissive as he'd initially feared. "You, you really favor that archetype, don't you?"

"Wouldn't be here without it," Daniel replied instantly. "You've been working with, what, me and your church this whole time? Ever since you've been a god, right? You've had Proxies that you might have let in on your secrets, but I bet you have Hammer's problem deep down. You're just not that much of a jerk to handle it how he did."

"Are you calling me lonely?"

"I'm saying you could use a friend. If you stop treating me like an asset, or a Spoke with an annoying interface, and look at it like we're two people with the same kind of souls trying the best for everyone around them, I think we can reach a place where it doesn't suck to be around each other."

Cloak deliberated on that for some time, and if Daniel was in the height of his skepticism, he might have wondered what was for show. Was the thoughtful glance toward where his sister's room was below only intended to draw his sympathy, or did Cloak care? Was he even physically here? But that had been his problem, constant doubt. He couldn't ask for trust while picking apart everything the god did at the same time.

The human eyes of the Proxy appraised his hand before looking back at Daniel. "I wouldn't expect a bond from this," he said, with an uplift in the voice that gave Daniel hope. "The one between us gods supersedes any other. It's one of the foundations of the Octyrrum. Even so, I think…" as he reached his hand towards Daniel's, both started glowing with a visible aura, overlapping with his own in Daniel's case.

Alarmed, both shot up, Daniel pulling his red bag of holding toward him from across the room. "What's going on?"

"This isn't me, I don't-" Downstairs, the sound of shattering glass and what had to have been Alex's scream sounded out, and Daniel suddenly couldn't care what the god had to say. The compound was under attack.

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