Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Before we leave, we check in again with the Cliffside Crows. There's a good chance this will be the last time we see any of them with their current set of memories, considering the dangers of the Intermediary. That we've escaped having to loop for as long as we have... well, it's a miracle in and of itself.

When we arrive, we find them waiting for us. Tarin, Mari, and Naru stand at the forefront of a large group of villagers, not all of whom I recognize. Virin and Rotar are there, though. The former is practically vibrating with excitement, and the latter looks... nervous.

"Ethan!" Tarin squawks. He folds his wings in front of his chest. "Where you go? We looking for you."

"We were training," I say, which is technically true.

Just like that, everything is forgiven—Tarin's expression brightens into a haughty kind of smug satisfaction. It almost makes me laugh. I'm definitely going to miss him. "Training good!" he says. "I forgive. Next time you just say you training. I send help."

I decide not to tell him that I'm not sure he could've helped in this particular instance. It'll only offend him.

"Anyway," he continues. "We make gift for you. You leaving, yes?"

A gift? I blink, feeling oddly touched. I would've expected the crows to have too much to contend with to worry about putting together some kind of farewell gift. "We're headed to the Intermediary again," I say with a nod. "Need to go there to finish our training."

"Then you take this," Tarin declares. He holds a wing out, and Virin carefully places a strange, ornately-carved box into it. It's probably the fanciest item I've ever seen from the crows—their crafting tends to favor function over form.

"What is it?" I ask. Tarin opens the box in lieu of answering, and my breath catches in my throat.

It's some kind of imbuement stone. A strong one. I feel the weight of it almost as soon as the lid is opened like a yawning void suddenly opening up in my perception of Firmament—whatever this thing is, it absolutely devours Firmament. I could pour an entire river into it and not sate its hunger.

Predictably, the Void Inspiration reacts to this. I haven't heard from it in a while, but now it coils up within me, interested in this stone that appears to be yet another one of its siblings; I have to nudge it to calm down. I'm in no state to use Firmament, much less an Inspiration.

"It stone," Tarin says proudly, which tells me... precisely nothing. Beside him, Naru lets out an aggrieved sigh.

"It's an imbuement we created for you," he tells me. "And by 'we', I mean the whole village. You better be grateful, Trialgoer. That thing wasn't easy to make."

Tarin frowns a bit at this, snapping the box shut and turning to look at his son. "That not how you talk to friend," he says severely. He reaches up to smack Naru in the head, then apparently thinks the better of it—just before his wing makes contact, he aborts the action and turns it into an awkward-looking pat on the head.

There's a long silence where everyone just stares at the two of them. Naru looks a mixture of embarrassed and—to my surprise—grateful.

I think he recognizes that Tarin is... trying.

"We owe you for what you've done for us," Naru says. This time, when he speaks, his voice is considerably softer. "Pretty soon you're going to be doing things we won't be able to help with anymore, so we thought we'd make one last thing you might be able to use."

"I've been working with Virin to encode all my memories of the Fracture into an imbuement." Rotar picks up from there, stepping forward. "I figured out pretty quick that I'm probably not going to be able to work out everything before you leave, and if you reset anymore I'm going to lose all my remaining memories of the Fracture. So we thought if we could find a way to extract everything I know..."

"It's more than that," Naru says. "This village is the closest anyone lives to the Fracture. I grew up on stories about it. We have legends, myths, childhood fairytales—this village is probably the single biggest repository of knowledge there is on the Fracture."

He hesitates, then sighs. "Tarin... my dad briefed me on what you've learned about the Fracture," he says. "About Hestia. If you're going to find out what's happening, you'll need this. It has all the visions Rotar experienced, every scrap of knowledge Tarin can remember from the time he apparently fell in—" Naru spares a moment to glare at Tarin when he says this, evidently annoyed at not being told about it. "—and every single legend and tale we have about it."

"I... thank you," I say. I have to kneel to take the box from Tarin, and I hold it with no small amount of reverence—I can see that a lot was put into making this gift. From the looks of things, every villager among the Cliffside Crows contributed.

I look up at them, scanning each of the crows one by one. "Is there something you're not telling me?" I ask quietly.

Because this is a lot of effort to put into a gift of knowledge. I understand it, to some degree. Rotar's memories of the Fracture are fading. We don't know what Tarin will be able to remember once time resets, now that he no longer has the shard.

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But even still... this feels more like a goodbye than I'd like. They're giving this to me in case something happens to them. In case a Tear rips through the crows and leaves nothing behind. If the worst happens, I'll still have this—a small piece of what remains. A fraction of their culture. A fragment of what was.

Mari seems to know what I'm thinking. She's surprisingly insightful. This version of her may not know me as well, but the smile she gives me is still warm and motherly.

"You worry too much," she says. She taps a wing lightly on my forehead. "We give just in case. But we give so you know we with you. No matter where you go. Yes?"

...I like that framing of it a lot better. I smile at her, pushing myself back to my feet, and weigh the box in my hand. It's pretty light, considering what it contains—the imbuement contained within is breathtakingly complex, and the quality of the stone used to hold it isn't exactly low, either.

It really is meant as a gift.

"It hard to make!" Virin pipes up. "I use what you teach. And then I need invent five new things. And sacrifice many stones." He makes a face like he's wrinkling a nose he doesn't have. "You teach, I learn! But you learn too, yes? And then come back and teach me." He jabs a wing at the stone. "I not sacrifice so many stones again."

I laugh at this. "I'll do my best to figure out what you did, but no promises. I can tell how complicated this is."

If anything, I might have underestimated Virin. He may have wanted my help researching his stones, but he knows his stuff with imbuements. If he was able to take the little I've told him and turn it into this...

I need to remember to come back to him with any imbuement-related problems in the future. He might be a genius. For a moment, I consider what might happen if I introduce him to the kobold engineers back in Isthanok almost shudder at the thought—I have no doubt they'd be able to create something monstrous.

That might be something to keep in mind for the future, actually.

"Thank you," I say again, holding the box close, feeling the weight of it in my hand. "All of you."

And then I pause, a somewhat awkward question coming to mind. I clear my throat. "Though I should probably ask... how do I use this?"

The way the crows look at each other tells me I probably won't like the answer. I hide a bit of a fond smile and lean in to listen.

The downside to whatever mysterious methods Virin used, it turns out, is that even the crows aren't entirely sure. Virin knows for a fact that everything's been encoded into the artifact, but the imbuement is advanced to a point where none of the crows can use it themselves—not even Naru.

The understanding that we have, slowly pieced together from Virin's expectations and some trial and error, is that the imbuement is a little like a miniaturized, Firmament-based computer. It contains everything the crows promised and more, but it takes a lot of Firmament to form a proper "query", and even more Firmament for it to return a response.

I don't mind. The meaning behind the gift matters a lot more to me, and while I can't use it right now, I already know for a fact that it'll be useful when the time comes. Whatever anomaly there is causing the Fracture to explode and annihilate the planet is still there, waiting for me to investigate.

In the meantime? The crows have created what's honestly a surprisingly useful training tool for Firmament control. The artifact's ability to process enormous quantities of Firmament yet require precise control of it means that not a single one of us can access it the way we are. Guard doesn't have the requisite control, despite his enormous reserves. Ahkelios doesn't quite have the reserves to match his control, and even then he could use more of both.

As for me, my core is still too strained for me to give it an attempt. I suspect I might have trouble with it even at my best, though. The complexity of the imbuement... It's still beyond impressive to me that Virin was able to manage this, even with the entire village helping him.

Tarin, of course, is absolutely delighted that it can double as a training tool. He makes us all promise to use it diligently and even requests that we come back every so often so he can "make everyone train with it".

Judging by the look he gives the box after this discovery, I think he might actually slightly regret giving it to us, not that he tries to take it back or anything. He just really, really wants to train with it. I don't think I've ever seen a giant crow look that much like a kicked puppy.

We say our goodbyes. Tarin especially knows that he might not remember anything from this loop, and he doesn't let me leave without giving me a firm hug and declaring, quite firmly, that he knows I'll make him proud. It leaves a warm feeling in my chest.

It doesn't escape my notice that Naru's watching us the whole time, either. This time, though, he doesn't look jealous. He's even wearing a small smile.

"I'll be heading back to Carusath," he tells me quietly once I'm done with Tarin. "I... need to fix things there. And I've heard reports of the Tears worsening."

"Keep me updated," I say. I hesitate, unsure if I should add anything else—but then I do. "Let me know if anything goes wrong and you need help. It won't be hard to reach me. You know where and when I show up."

Naru shoots me a look that's surprisingly grateful. He lifts a hand, and it takes me a moment to realize what he wants.

I give him a fistbump. His side of it is a little harder than necessary, but it's still surprisingly sincere.

"Tarin's not the type to say it out loud," Naru says, eyeing me. "But I know he thinks of you as an honorary son. I'd say that makes us brothers, but right now I still find it hard to stand you."

I snort. He's being honest, at least. There's a warmth in his tone despite his words, so I reply with a simple, wry, "Likewise."

Brothers, huh? The thought brings old memories back to the surface. I shake my head to push them away, watching as Naru makes his way back to Tarin and Mari's hut—presumably to say goodbye to them before he heads back to Carusath.

Meanwhile, Ahkelios, Guard and I have our own journey to make. I turn to them. They've been largely quiet through all of this, recognizing the goodbye for what it is.

"Ready to get going?" I ask. Ahkelios gives me a thumbs up, and Guard gives me a solemn nod.

We move on. The artifact the crows gave me is tucked away safely inside Ahkelios's core using Soul Space. I can't use the skill myself yet, but Ahkelios can.

It's good enough for now. Next stop: the Intermediary.

I can't help but worry about what we might find there. Despite the damage in my core, I can still feel the vaguest sense of something growing.

Almost like a quiet Premonition of what might be coming.