Ore-flesh rang against ore-flesh, fang against fang, as the Coreless fought against one another.

To one side, Needle used her needle-spitter to send needle-fang after needle-fang into a circular target. They thunked against it in a relaxing rhythm of repeated beats, only broken by the occasional clatter of splitting wood when one needle-fang cut directly through another.

In the center of a ring of raised stone, Will and the Unrepentant One battled, pitting solid defense against powerful blows. The ground below them, covered in stone-dust and pitted with scars from battle after battle, shifted under their feet. It swirled with each step, and neither Coreless were above attempting to use that to their advantage; the swirling stone-dust often found itself kicked or thrown upwards, eagerly meeting the mouth or eyes of either opponent.

The-female-who-was-not-Needle ran rings around the training-room of the nest, having already fought against the Staring One and lost.

After the meeting with the Shaper of ore-flesh, we had returned to the same nest as the night before; based on the way that my Coreless had quickly claimed a place within it, I was sure that this was their nest.

It was an odd one, different from the other nests that I had seen within the Coreless’ many-nest. Larger than most, it stretched far and was filled with many rooms. Its scent-taste was muted, with my mouth still bound in thread, but I was still able to catch enough to pick out some of their purposes.

Directly behind the first moving-wall that hid the nest’s entrance was a large-room filled with fake-pedestals and slabs of darkwood propped up on carved legs that ran along its sides. More moving-walls filled the gaps that rested between each of the legged slabs, each leading to a new small-room. I hadn’t been able to go inside any of them yet, but I had seen one of the moving-walls open earlier. They looked similar to the small-room that I had escaped from prior to my assault on the deceptive Aridae, though they might have been slightly smaller.

Further back, the nest opened up even more. One section in particular gave off the faint scent-taste of food and feel-good-water.

I did not receive any offerings of the feel-good-water this time.

Beyond that, the nest split up into two sections: one seemed to be a place for the Coreless to sleep, filled with giant soft-slabs. I enjoyed slithering into those and coiling into its warmth.

Now, we were in the other section: a training-room where the Coreless spent most of their time. For the last few days, we had hardly gone anywhere else. I wasn’t sure how often my Coreless typically left their nest for the many-nest outside; maybe this was normal for them. I had hardly ever left the Great Core’s nest, after all.

Unlike the rest of my Coreless’ nest, the training-room was left open to the cavern above; if I had wanted to, I could have used my new [Clinging Grasp III] to climb the walls and leave the nest. I didn’t. I had already put in a lot of effort towards turning these particular Coreless to the light of the Great Core.

I wouldn’t abandon them now. Not to the deceptions of the Aridae. They were mine. Ours.

Not to mention, I could still feel the eyes of the Staring One on me. I knew that he was watching. After seeing him fight against the other Coreless, I had no doubts that he was far more dangerous than the others. I decided to stay put.

I decided to watch.

And so, for the few days that followed the meeting with the Shaper of ore-flesh, that was what I did. For the first day or two, I was left with an odd, unsettling feeling; why, I didn’t know. It felt as if something was being pulled away from me, but I couldn’t find the source of the sensation. As far as I could tell, everything seemed normal otherwise. Nothing had changed - even, unfortunately, the binding thread that was wrapped around my mouth.

In that day or two of odd sensations, I tried my best to distract myself. I entertained myself with illusions of the Coreless fighting around me, doing my best to mirror their movements in miniature with as little delay as possible. It was difficult and I was forced to reduce the quality of the illusions in order to keep up, but it was something to do. Something to distract myself - both from the odd sensation that crawled its way under my scale-flesh and from the knowledge that the Aridae remained alive nearby.

I consoled myself with the thought that both of those things were only temporary. And, just as I thought, the unsettling feeling eventually went away - though not in a way that I appreciated or expected. If anything, it only made me more unsettled.

Checkpoint Removed: The Second Cycle.

The flicker of the thought-light came paired with a tearing sensation, forcing me to coil painfully inwards and bite my tail in distress. [The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] did nothing to help physically; the discomfort was entirely mental. Still, I found some degree of comfort in the familiar act, and was eventually able to calm myself down enough to send a question towards the thought-light.

Its response, while still concerning, made me feel slightly better. At the same time, it wasn’t entirely comforting.

[The Endless Cycle] Checkpoints:

First: Active

Second: Removed

Third: Active

Something had happened to affect [The Endless Cycle], and it wasn’t just time passing. If it was, the first would have been lost instead. No, it was something else.

And I didn’t know what - though I was sure that it was connected to the strange feeling I had been having for awhile. At the very least, I knew that I would have some degree of warning next time.

Hopefully, I would find the reason before it could happen again.

Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a next time.

A sharp clang of ore-flesh marked the end of the most recent duel between Will and the Unrepentant One as the shifting of stone-dust below led to the Unrepentant One falling to one knee. Will took the advantage, bashing the other Coreless’ weapon from his hand with his own ore-flesh before he could recover. Immediately after, the Unrepentant One raised both hands, a gesture that I had found to signify surrender.

The two rose to their feet, slipping to the edge of the training-room and pouring mana-water over their heads from a waiting set of skin-mouths. It dripped down, mixing with the gray of the stone-dust that coated their faces. Soon enough, both Needle and not-Needle stopped their own training as well, joining the other two. The Staring One joined them, though it still felt as if his eyes were on me. I could hear them making noises at one another from where I rested, though the actual meaning was lost to me.

“...worried that the others haven’t come back yet. I know that they can handle themselves - more than we can, even - but they should have checked in by now. Where did you say they went?” Will said, making noises at the Staring One.

He grunted. “Hasn’t been that long; those four got back about a week before you all did. Council sent them off to Verdant Grove right after. A couple of our traders that went in that direction recently never came back. That’s part of why your little pyromaniac caused as many issues with the Council as it did. They’re worried about how well our food stocks will hold up if our trade with Verdant Grove is cut off somehow.” He shrugged. “Give it time. They know what they’re doing, and I don’t expect them back quite yet. Best case scenario, the main path to Verdant Grove was cut off by a tunnel collapse and they had to reroute. In the end, there’s nothing to do but wait and see.”

“And if it’s something worse?”

“Then we’ll have to deal with it. Skies know that those layabouts in the Council won’t.”

“You’ve got th-” Will stopped, tilting his head as if trying to listen to something.

In the distance, I heard something start to ring.