Die. Respawn. Repeat.

He-Who-Guards was impressed, and he quite hated that fact.

The most he ever remembered of a loop reset was vague flashes of color. The density of his Firmament and the unusual nature of his implanted core allowed him some ability to resist the loops, which was the only reason he remembered events between them. Even with all that, he'd never been able to sense them coming.

Certainly not like this, with enough advance warning to put up some kind of barrier against it. This wasn't even Teluwat's real body. He was reaching out through an agent and using that agent to cut apart the wave of reversed time crashing through Hestia.

It was a terrifying feat.

Not for the first time, Guard checked his defenses to make sure Teluwat—he refused to call him Raskar—hadn't gotten through them. He'd tried more than once, sneaking small tendrils of memory-altering Firmament toward Guard's core. His plan had worked, though. Each time he tried, Ethan's Void Inspiration reacted to it, devouring that Firmament before it made contact.

He'd been worried at first that Teluwat might be able to tell he had some way to defend himself, but as far as he could tell, that worry had been unfounded. Teluwat didn't react to his tendrils of power being consumed.

He knew better than to let his guard down, though.

"Thank you," Guard told the Void Inspiration once more. It reacted by swimming a tight circle in his core, excited and pleased with itself. When he'd given it this task, he hadn't expected it to take to it with so much enthusiasm. It was probably the main reason he was able to remain as calm as he had when Teluwat's agent first showed up.

He'd been angry, of course. Furious.

But deep inside his core, he'd also been plotting.

He wasn't foolish enough to think that the Void Inspiration by itself was sufficient defense. Even if it was, he refused to leave any of this to chance—anything was better than Teluwat finding a way to use him against Ethan. Guard might not have the same ability to manipulate Firmament as a Trialgoer, but he'd been training that ability, nevertheless.

More importantly, he'd also been working on his skill circuits. Condensing a three dimensional construct into a circuit was difficult work, but he'd made good strides in the Grove.

It was part of the reason he was so silent. Every step he took was accompanied with the careful etching of a new circuit on the inside of his core, a practice that was similar to how Ethan's own core contained skill constructs. These circuits, however, were designed to draw on the Firmament around him and create a protective barrier around his core.

The more Teluwat tried to use his skills on him, the more he could tune those circuits against those exact skills.

Circuit inversion. He'd done it once, and he'd practiced it even more since.

"So!" Teluwat said as the temporal wave subsided, sidling up to him. Guard reminded himself that Teluwat would expect him to call the crow agent Raskar; he needed to make sure he was playing along. "How about that, eh? Can you imagine anyone else doing that?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"No," Guard said, quite honestly. Ethan probably could, but given he triggered those loop resets by dying, he wouldn't actually be alive to do it. It was a useful skill, though. Guard resolved to himself that he would pay attention to the skill construct being activated the next time it happened.

"Exactly," Raskar said, puffing out his chest. Guard wondered if he knew how ridiculous he looked. He was a little out of breath, too, a fact Guard took careful notice of; he might have tried to make it look easy, but a feat like that no doubt took a monumental amount of Firmament. "Kauku won't stand a chance against us if we work together."

"Do you know what he wants?" Guard asked, keeping his tone even. He'd never mentioned Kauku by name.

"Oh, you know," Raskar said with a shrug. "Power, revenge. The type of thing all despots want."

"How does he intend to achieve it?"

"You don't already know?" Raskar pretended to look surprised. "He intends to devour Hestia's Heart, of course. Temporal Firmament and its skill constructs are perhaps one of the greatest powers ever produced by the Interface. Imagine what he could do with the skills granted to him! He'd be able to do anything your Trialgoer friend can do, on a scale far greater than you can imagine."

"And is he close to doing this?" Guard asked.

"No, not yet. Or I don't think so." Raskar tapped the side of his beak. "He's being delayed by something. I'm helping."

"Helping?" Guard tilted his head. That was a slip of the tongue, if he'd ever heard one.

"Helping to delay him, of course," Raskar said easily, but he changed the topic almost immediately after. "I'm surprised you aren't asking more questions about your son, He-Who-Guards. Aren't you worried about him?"

"Not at all," Guard lied. "You have always kept your word. I have no reason to believe he would not be safe. My worries lie with what Kauku may have planned for the planet."

"Indeed," Raskar said. He stared at Guard for a moment, expression unreadable, and Guard in turn made very sure not to react. It was difficult—even now, his Firmament threatened to boil over with his rage—but he simply took that raging Firmament and bound it tightly into yet another circuit, to empower yet another shield.

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Teluwat couldn't seem to tell whether or not his skill was working. Guard, on the other hand, could review the memories Teluwat was trying to plant inside him without allowing them to take root: all he needed to do was review the empty fragments of what the Void had consumed.

The reality he was being fed was an insidious one. He could see how it might happen. If he'd had a friend so close to him in the aftermath of Whisper's Trial, it certainly would have. Teluwat fed him memory after memory of a friendship that had never been, creating a world in which he'd asked Teluwat to take care of his son in light of Whisper's growing instability.

If he hadn't taken the Void Inspiration with him—if he hadn't known to be cautious of this particular Trialgoer, of all Trialgoers—the ploy might have worked.

Instead, the false memories only made him angrier. It showed him a world that might have been, if his choices had been a little different. If Teluwat hadn't stolen all memory of his son away from him.

"Has he been well?" Guard asked, realizing Raskar was still staring at him, waiting for more. "I worry that Palus might be unkind to him—no offense. Your Great City is not known for being particularly... habitable."

"Not to worry," Raskar said. "I made sure he would be fine! You'd be surprised how much I can do with my skills. You'll see."

"Of course," Guard said, even as his core flared erratically; it took all his will to suppress it. "I look forward to it."

"You'd better! I'm sure you'll love what I've done," Raskar said cheerfully. He reached out to take Guard's hand, and Guard allowed it, mostly because he was distracted trying to hide what was happening.

Ethan was reaching out to him through their bond, and Guard needed to be absolutely sure Teluwat had no idea what was happening.

"Let's go," I say. My expression, I hope, is largely unreadable—mostly because I might have to deal with too many questions if either Ahkelios or Gheraa could tell how angry I am. I'm pretty sure they can tell anyway, but they know not to ask.

As much as I'd like to rush to Guard's assistance immediately, he's right. That approach would be far too risky. Teluwat has far too much power at the moment: better to keep him unaware of how much we know and plan around him. If he even catches a whiff that we might be on to him, there's no telling what he might do to Guard's son.

It's a hostage situation, effectively.

"If you're sure," Ahkelios says. I give him a halfhearted smile.

"We've got a plan, but you're not going to like it," I say. "Either way, we need to get caught up with the Empty City and try to get the Ritual stage clear. The longer we spend there, the less time we have to clear up Tears on Hestia, and those are getting worse, too."

I don't even need Naru to come to me to tell me about them anymore. I'm not sure if this is a byproduct of the increased strength of my core or simply a result of how bad things have gotten on Hestia, but I can feel the fractures in the timestream more clearly than ever.

They're all over the place. Where several of those fractures meet, a new Tear is created, opening up yet another hole in Hestia's history. The more time we waste...

I shake my head. No use dwelling on it.

"Um," Ahkelios says. "What part of the plan am I not going to like, exactly, and why won't I like it?"

"You're never a fan of plans that involve me dying a lot," I say with a small grin. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you enjoyed being stuck in that Tear with Gheraa, either."

"It was cramped and wet," Ahkelios grimaces, and then he pauses. "What do you mean, dying a lot?"

"I'm not sure I like this plan either," Gheraa says.

"Trust me," I say. "As much as it's going to suck for us, it's going to be much, much worse for Teluwat."

It only takes a quick explanation for the both of them to get on board. Ahkelios is shaking his head, but he can't hide his amusement; Gheraa, on the other hand, doesn't even try.

"Let's get going," I say, reaching for the Interface and retrieving the key. "It should be easier to find the expedition team this time."

"Just try not to traumatize them any more," Ahkelios quips.

I pause, blinking at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ahkelios raises a brow at me, antennae twitching. "You didn't realize?"

"Realize what?"

"Ethan," he says, and now he looks like he's trying to hold back a laugh. "You kind of died right in front of them, and I guess you didn't realize this, but you were laughing."

Gheraa snorts. I try to think back to the moment. Come to think of it, at the time, I'd been amused that the Sewers thought it could stop me just by crushing me once. I think back to what that might have looked like from anyone else's perspective and grimace.

"Whoops," I say. "I should probably explain that one, huh?"

"Just a bit." Ahkelios snickers.

I shake my head, turning the key and watching as the gateway to the Empty City opens up in front of me. "We'll have to find them first," I say.

Then I step through, Chromatic Strings already unspooling from my fingers.

Versa crashed through a collection of trees, cacti, boulders, and detritus; she kicked up a cloud of dust as she rolled along the forest floor, coughing. She was pretty sure this was where the Trialgoer appeared at the start of each loop. That was her best chance of finding him.

There was no one here, though. There were traces of Firmament that confirmed that he'd been here, at least, along with a glowing portal that Versa was pretty sure he'd gone through, but that didn't do her any good—she couldn't follow him into the portal.

Just to make sure, though, she poked her hand at it, then winced when it zapped her. Yeah, no.

"Come on," Versa said, glaring at the portal. "You're a pain in the ass to find and talk to, you know that?"

The portal didn't respond, of course. She punched it out of frustration—leading to her getting zapped again—then sat down with a groan. She needed a break. Trying to get anywhere fast... hurt, these days.

She glanced down at the makeshift prosthetics strapped to her legs.

Versa didn't remember the specifics of what happened. All she knew was that Teluwat had caused it. She'd left herself that much information in her notes, along with other things she thought might be relevant to Ethan: the fact that Teluwat was working with some unknown force, the fact that he was planning on subverting He-Who-Guards, and the location of his hideouts and resources.

If only Ethan was actually accessible. She grimaced, pushing herself to her feet and trying to ignore the stabbing pain that immediately shot up her legs. The few times she'd tried to heal them, concrete instead of chitin had started growing out of the stumps. It was an awful experience.

There was another place nearby she could try, at least. The little village of crows that Naru came from. Apparently, Ethan had some sort of connection with the people there.

Maybe someone there would be able to pass on a message.