In the end, it was actually more simple than Randidly had expected to convince the memory version of himself that what he was saying might possibly be true.

“So I’m the memory version?” The memory had asked with pursed lips. They mutually agreed to maintain a seething forest of roots around their face-off, keeping the duos away. Real Randidly didn’t want to bother with them and fake Randidly didn’t want this strange interloper near them. Some of them tried to cut through the mass of plants, but the two Randidlys just regenerated the barrier. Which meant that they were completely isolated within the pulsing mass of vines. “But I must assume that you coming back and challenging yourself is a pretty significant deviation from the original scenario. How’s your head?”

Randidly gestured vaguely behind him, to the ambushers. “I took the memories from all of them. With more people’s significance supporting the memory, it looks like deviation isn’t such a problem.”

“Taking memories from them…” Dream Randidly said, rubbing his chin. Randidly rolled his eyes. He could practically hear the ‘oh, that’s a good idea’ in the memory’s internal monologue. Then the memory looked back at him, seeming to consider him. Meanwhile, the undercurrent of testing continued. Every second, the memory would release pulses of different images, seeming to test him. Randidly responded with the same pulse.

The only difference was the Grim Chimera. Randidly grinned wolfishly over at the memory when that image came up. His version of the Grim Chimera had a noticeable edge.

“So why are you here then? What do you want from yourself?” The memory asked. His eyes glittered as Yggdrasil spread its branches and began healing his mental fatigue. Regardless of the reason, it seemed obvious that the memory considered him a significant threat, and not a training opportunity. That was good.

Randidly’s smile was lazy. The Grim Chimera appeared around him. “I wanted to refine some of the changes to the Grim Chimera that I’ve made. And as you know, we’ve already fought so many times against Kaan… so I thought… why not try and fight the man who managed to defeat Kaan Swacc?”

After a moment of silence, both Randidly’s began to laugh. Fighting intent spiked upward from both of them. Then the memory Randidly pouted. “Heh, it’s rather frustrating that I have to be the one used as a whetstone, rather than the one improving… but I assume this is your first attempt? Next time, tell me to look at our Nether Nebula. There’s… something wrong with mine. It’s hard to explain. It’s like its a replica built to look like one, without any of its power. A model with no true significance.”

Randidly blinked. “...Thanks.”

Then they began to fight.

*****

Tatiana sat in her office. She took a sip of her tea and then sighed in pleasure. White teas were her favorite. This particular blend included both dried raspberries and what could only be grass that had been soaked in white wine. The result was sour and bitter, just the jolt she needed to start the day.

Then the central spine of Kharon turned and looked to the North, letting her eyes fade from the forefront of her focus so her mind could peer through the walls of her office. Although it was far away, she still could feel the place where Randidly Ghosthound had fought last night. In retrospect, some sort of challenge against him in the wake of the duos tournament was obvious. She should have seen it coming. But at least from what Tatiana had heard from Mrs. Hamilton, Randidly had inflicted a rather serious punishment against them. She offered a sharp smile to the hardwood paneling of her office wall.

She would give him shit for making more political work for her, but if the Zones tried to make an issue of it, Tatiana would butcher them. How dare they legitimately try to ambush him? After all the work he put into making them stronger…?

But Tatiana suppressed that frustration and turned her attention to hallways of City Hall around her. She took another sip of her delicate tea and released a sigh. As she grew more distant from Randidly during the process of preparing for his departure, her uncanny intuition slowly evolved to include the creations of Randidly Ghosthound. So she could faintly feel the sensation of each person moving about the building. She could feel their feet tap lightly along the floor of the tiled halls.

Tatiana stood and walked to the door. She held the handle for several seconds, waiting for her target to approach. Then, just as Commissioner Arrietti was hurrying past, Tatiana opened the door. When their eyes met, she favored him with a smile. “Ah, Commissioner. How are you doing today?”

“I am well, thank you.” The Commissioner gave her a short bow. Then he hesitated as though debating over whether or not to say something. As always with the man, his sense of duty won. “The report on corruption-”

“Ah, let’s not talk about business right now, Commissioner.” Tatiana waved her hand. Wouldn’t her life be so much easier if she had more subordinates as determinedly single-minded as he? Then she brought her fist against her palm as though she had just remembered something. “Oh! Didn’t you tell me that you enjoyed barbecue? I recently went to a new restaurant and the food was excellent. If you have time, perhaps you should stop in and give it a try.”

“Oh? Well… I do consider myself something of a connoisseur of the grill…” The Police Commissioner said. Then Tatiana gave him the address of a restaurant owned by a single, middle-aged woman with a warm smile and a spine of iron. Tatiana had done a thorough investigation of the woman’s background to make sure she had no ulterior motives for coming to Kharon and believed the two would be compatible. Her intuition told her it was an ideal match. All that was left was to see if Tatiana had lost her touch since coming to work in politics.

With a nod, Tatiana walked away from the Commissioner and went to the staircase in the East Wing of City Hall. She could feel Commissioner Arrietti standing still and repeating the address to himself, so he wouldn’t forget it. The image of the very serious expression he undoubtedly had on his face made her smile.

As Tatiana descended to the ground floor, she passed the bickering figures of Derek and Hydie on the wide stairwell. Tatiana favored these two with a warm smile as well. “Ah, back from your training expedition? How did it go?”

“No fatalities,” Derek announced in a jolly tone, but the corner of his mouth twitched. “Unfortunately, about a third of the participants suffered rather serious injuries. Injuries so serious that we needed to call a dedicated healer in order to stitch them back together. It just seemed like so many unlikely accidents befell our expedition…”

“Oh shut up,” Hydie said frostily. She was keeping a rather cool expression on her face, but Tatiana could sense how legitimately disturbed she was about the accidents. She was doing better at embracing her own Aura of Misfortune, but she hadn’t quite been able to avoid flinching at these consequences. It would be a slow process of learning to accept herself. “Won’t this build character? If we give things too freely to people, they will get spoiled.”

“Well said, Hydie,” Tatiana commented as she glided down the stairs past them. She waved one hand over her shoulder in goodbye. “As long as they are alive, they can learn and grow. The rest… well, it’s just experience.”

Once on the ground floor, Tatiana quickened her pace. Today she had quite a few actual meetings to get through, mostly regarding the plans for Kharon’s floating islands. In addition, she had to meet with Vye and Naffur and plan out how they wanted to approach Expira’s final Zone…

Tatiana paused in her walk and looked straight up. Although Randidly was floating on his island above, she felt powerful image reverberations coming from him: it appeared he had returned to training.

You are somewhat hopeless, Tatiana sighed as she briefly experienced the periphery of Randidly’s all-consuming desire to strengthen himself, then she went to her meeting and treated it like a palate cleanser. She passed through the mundane realities of paperwork and meetings and was able to breathe a lung full of air without the near-obsession of the Ghosthound lingering across her senses.

Not that she minded Randidly’s presence. But she needed to focus.

If Kharon was a body, Tatiana would have considered herself to be the inner ear. She wasn’t particularly responsible for any of the actual living that was done by the body, but she was constantly monitoring its balance. She checked in all of the various leaders and made sure they were mentally stable. She took the temperature of the various workers in all of the major industries of Kharon. She sat through meetings, listening and reflecting on the way the Wandering City was developing.

She listened to the pulse of the body, senses taut for any perceived flaws.

As days passed, Kharon arrived at the previous edge of the world without much fanfare. Without even pausing it crossed the equator into the wild wilderness that was the last obstacle before arriving at the final of Earth’s Zones. Monster resistance intensified, but it was nothing the Order Ducis couldn’t handle. There was more work to do, but it became predictable, in a way. Everything was beginning to settle into place.

Which was why Tatiana wasn’t surprised, a week after the people of Expira attacked Randidly, to find the Ghosthound himself waiting in her office. Her skin began to tingle. She knew why he was here immediately, just from his posture.

“It’s time,” Randidly said quietly. His hair that had grown wild during his training sessions had been trimmed back down to finger-length. Although the clothes he was wearing weren’t particularly nice, it was one of the compromise outfits that she had picked out for him to wear at official gatherings: a short-sleeve white button-up and forest green shorts. Wearing the outfit… he seemed almost criminally mundane. His tan right arm could belong to any clean-cut young man.

Even his emerald eyes were somehow sedate, refusing to catch any of the evening light filtering in through her window.

Tatiana felt a rising wave of emotion and pressed it sharply back down before it could sweep her away. She walked around to her desk and examined the calendar sitting there, even though she knew it by heart. “You don’t plan to have the final meeting with Miss Collins and the teaching board regarding Keystones?

“No. I already worry that the lessons I’m pushing them to teach are a little too harsh for the current times.” Randidly folded his arms across his chest. “They have the right number of ideas, now its just refining them. Neveah will be remaining on Expira, so she can still help with the Engraving when they are ready. As for the other stuff… Honestly… you did it, Tatiana. You’ve managed to make me completely superfluous in my own city. These people don’t need my help, any longer.”

Tatiana knew that he meant it as a joke, so she flashed her teeth in an imitation of a smile. But she felt quite cold all of a sudden. She breathed in and then breathed out. “When do you leave?”

“Tonight,” Randidly replied. “I’ve already gathered my Riders; they all chose to accompany me, from within the Alpha Cosmos. So they won’t be scouting for the Order Ducis any longer. I’ve already talked to Naffur about it.”

“Are you taking anyone else with you?” Tatiana asked.

Randidly shook his head. “Just Helen. The people of Expira… they will be handling Expira’s problems in the future. I can’t drag them around with me all across the Nexus.”

“Then this is goodbye. For a while, at least,” Tatiana blinked. Randidly walked forward and put his arms around Tatiana’s shoulders, squeezing her into a tight hug. He was strong, of course he was strong, but it was so easy to viscerally feel how strong he was as he hugged her. His hands pressed her back, bringing her to his chest. She felt so light and insubstantial compared to those arms. He smelled like soap, charcoal, and iron. The metal arm was warmer than she thought it would be. Not as warm as flesh, but also not unpleasant.

Then he let her go and took a step back. His eyes were still dark, but they swirled like shadows over the surface of a deep swamp. “Goodbye, Tatiana. I’ve left so much in your lap, I know that. And I could never repay you for all you’ve done for me.”

“You can,” Tatiana whispered. She refused to allow herself to cry, at least while he was here. She would save that for later. “You can win this. You can go the Nexus and ensure that no more humans need to die to fuel it.”

Randidly favored her with a toothy grin. “That’s the plan.”