The floating lights of the ballroom were turned down low and Reina’s magnetic voice bounced off the walls as she crooned her way through a tragic ballad about those that were lost during the arrival of the System. With a little cooperation of the people on the glowstone tiles, everyone allowed their previously flared images to dim. Humans, Nemesai, and alien creatures alike bowed their heads and swayed to the music; no matter what each individual had gained, much was lost to meet the high demands of the System.

Through that almost morose crowd swaying with the music, one man walked smoothly forward, slipping through the gaps of the groups in order to arrive quickly at his destination. And it was not that the man didn’t share the same feelings of regret as he heard the lyrics. No, this man was wracked by that very same regret every single day.

But this man also understood that the source of his current darkness lay with himself; the System was just an excuse.

Sighing, Ezekiel reached the side of the ballroom dedicated to the gift table and produced a small, hand-wrapped box. Compared to some of the lavish displays that covered the table, it was practically invisible. Yet Ezekiel reached forward and gently laid the package down on the heavy oak table.

“Don’t lose your way, Randidly,” He whispered. “Don’t become like me.”

Then Ezekiel slipped out of the party, even as the sad song ended and one filled with hope began.

*****

Something akin to an electric shock ran through Randidly’s body. He sat up straight, suddenly filled with the knowledge that Ezekiel had given him a gift. Helen, who still sat in front of him, quirked an eyebrow upward at the sudden jerky movement. But her implied question was almost immediately answered as there was a ripple in the air and an object began materialize in front of Randidly.

It was clearly recognizable as a dreamcatcher, yet the shape that was forming was extremely peculiar. Most of such mundane dreamcatchers that Randidly had seen had been a hoop woven with different patterns in the middle, generally made to resemble a spider’s web. Beads or feathers would be hanging from the bottom, adding further character to the item.

But this Dreamcatcher was a little different. Rather than a flat hoop, this dream catcher was a sphere. There were fully six exterior hoops twisted and crossing each other at random angles, adding a vast amount of depth and shape to the dreamcatcher. And from those exterior axises, Strange geometric shapes hung.

From those geometric shapes, more shapes hung. Until the interior was a confusing knot of triangles, parallelograms, rhombuses, hexagons, and the occasional unattached line that intersected itself in an extremely incestuous manner.

Congratulations! You have obtained the Second piece of your Fateset, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night! The night of your life is extremely long and the flow of time around you can be confusing even at the best of times. The membrane that is ‘self’, through which all experiences pass, can be easily misled by the suddenness of a ‘moment’. Perception can be masked and misled but the truth that a moment is both permanent and transient cannot be lost.

The Dreamcatcher of the Long Night exists as a tool to offer poise to the user. It can be considered a map and a vehicle, as well as the ultimate shield against those compelling narratives that claim to be ‘truth’.

Many truths exist in the world. The Alchemist exists because their truth exists separately from that of the world. The Dreamcatcher of the Long Night will help you shape that truth to its full potential.

Congratulations! Due to the presence of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, +4 Grim Intuition and Reaction per Level!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 2!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 3!

Even more than the meandering description provided by notification, Randidly was rather mystified by the two sudden Levels that he had gained in his Fatepiece. Early Levels, sure, and therefore easier, but also they had occurred before he had thought at all about what its function could be. Perhaps just from reading the description, he had obtained some clues…?

But I suppose the Philosopher’s Key wasn’t exactly immediately forthcoming with how it could be used. It will just take some time to experiment with this new piece of my Fate. Hopefully, it ends up being as useful as the prior one.

Helen clicked her tongue to get Randidly to look up from the dreamcatcher. “You obtained your Fate just like that?”

“A piece of my Fate,” Randidly corrected as he reached out and touched the top of the dream catcher that still hung magically in the air. As soon as his fingers pressed against the almost rope-like material that constituted most of the Fate, the soft sound of chimes reached Randidly’s ears. He glanced sideways at Helen, but it seemed immediately clear from her only mildly curious expression that she couldn’t hear those same noises.

...probably related to the use of the Dreamcatcher then, like the Philosopher’s Key can encounter the sensation of karma…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 4!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 5!

That's a comically easy confirmation...

Shaking his head, Randidly focused on the noise of chimes coming from the 3D Dreamcatcher of the Long Night that he now held in his hands. What he found was a maze of rumbles and rings. There were dozens of the noises that he could hear of various volumes and pitches, but after focusing for a while, his Grim Intuition and Focus were more than enough to start to isolate some individual sounds among them. The sound waves stopped muffling each other and an ecosystem gradually emerged.

However, examining the sounds gave Randidly not the faintest hint of a clue what the piece of his Fate was supposed to do.

“It doesn’t seem very powerful,” Helen commented with a yawn.

Randidly rolled his eyes. “I don’t think it’s something that will take an active role in battle. It is more… of an amulet, I suppose. It’s a dreamcatcher, and what I understand of dreamcatchers, they are hung over the bed of infants. To protect them from bad dreams.”

Helen shrugged. “As I said, it doesn’t seem very powerful. People rarely sleep with the System. So when would you have time to dream? And are your dreams really that bad that you need protection from them?”

Rather than answering, Randidly simply flapped his hand to shoo Helen away and focused back on the Dreamcatcher. Shrugging, she turned and walked toward the edge of Randidly’s floating island. Now that his spear practice was over, it was clear that Helen’s interest in staying here was quickly waning. Although the party below wasn’t much better, walking around was certainly better than just staring at Randidly cradle his dreamcatcher.

Which left Randidly alone to focus again on the chimes coming from within the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. His focus narrowed. Very quickly, he also realized that there was a flow of… something through the dreamcatcher that was causing the noise. In addition, that flow went both ways: coming out of him and into the dreamcatcher and from the world, through the dreamcatcher, and flowing into him.

As the description had said, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night acted as a buffer for… something. Experience and… time…?

No Levels, huh...

So for quite a while, Randidly paid very careful attention to the noises coming out of the dreamcatcher. The high notes of the chimes, the low notes, the strange flow that rang them… his attention watched for anything determinative about what was occurring. When that didn’t yield anything, Randidly even brought out his Philosopher’s Key and prodded ineffectually at the dreamcatcher for a while. But he couldn’t sense any karma amongst those noises.

With a shrug, Randidly stopped trying to determine anything from the raw sound and simply immersed his consciousness directly in the dreamcatcher. His light mental touch quickly went up to one of the loudest chimes that was being held suspended in the dreamcatcher. Randidly was slightly afraid that there would literally be a bad dream held there, but almost a half-hour of careful observation had yielded him nothing.

It felt like time to gamble a bit.

Immediately after Randidly reached out, the chime he reached for grew increasingly loud. To the point where it buzzed his entire perspective. And then everything went dark.

And in the dark, he found a voice.

“So you choose this path. But as I have stated, it is useless. You are an accident I never expected; did you really think that I would simply let you go?”

Moving slowly, Randidly turned to face the source of the voice that continued to speak so malevolently. “I cannot take control. But I can break you, take away all your strengths, your connections to the outside world. You need but simply acquiesce; I’ve taken away your ability to do anything else, after all. Then I will use your Aether Crossroads to create a utopia for you humans. Simply give in, and you can escape that darkness. Otherwise…”

What was strange was the sense of immediate familiarity of this place… and then feeling of alienation. Because Randidly felt emotions in his chest that weren’t his own, not truly. They had been at one time, but now…

He was crowded by fear, anger, panic, anxiety, and a bone-deep hatred for everyone that tried to control him. The emotions were so pure and poignant that he felt them bleeding into his consciousness.

Ignoring the voice talking to him, Randidly spun on his heel and looked around at the surrounding area. Not a thing could be seen. It was completely dark, isolated from the rest of the world. Then the familiarity made sense; this was a place that Randidly knew. A place that he remembered very well, even to this day.

This was the first time that the Creature had approached him directly, seeking to use his images to create a world she could use to hide from the System. And when Randidly hadn’t agreed, she had isolated him. It was only through the connections to the four people he had given blessings that he had been able to escape.

Randidly seemed to have been teleported to the past. And rather than going back to his then capabilities, his Skills were still all present.

He looked calmly around. To the eyes of the current Randidly, he could see the rather lazy construction of the Aether framework that cut off him from the rest of the world. He could also see the deliberate holes that would allow him to escape if he could use this opportunity to connect his Aether and images to people outside of this area.

Randidly almost couldn’t help himself; he raised his hand and tore it all down.

Suddenly they were back in the badlands just outside of Donnyton. Yystrix was clearly shocked, taking a step back. “You… how did you-”

“...Even if you are just a projection of her… in an old memory that has haunted me for a long time…” Randidly said slowly. He raised his hand and wiped away a tear. Yyxtrix wore Lyra’s young face, looking so innocent and out of place as the monster that had tried to doom the Earth several times. “...it’s good to see you. You didn’t deserve what happened to you, Yyxtrix.”

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 6!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 12!