Needless to say, Helen’s prediction ended up being exactly right. She still had a sizable lead over even the most powerful images on Expira, and this strange man was only above average in his capabilities.

Randidly walked casually forward. The spar hadn’t taken long; Elijah Frank’s powerful skybike had been ripped to shreds by Helen’s Depths of Horror and left in pieces across the area that Randidly had previously used for training.

Eventually, he crouched next to the panting Elijah and rested his chin on his fingers. “Let’s not dwell long on how that spare finished; you didn’t have a chance from the beginning. Instead, let me ask you something: Why do you want to be a part of the Order Ducis?”

The tightness around Elijah’s eyes clearly conveyed how much pain he experienced in the five-minute spar with Helen. Likely, he would not make the mistake of choosing her again. Elijah Frank’s bulbous nose was red and swollen from when Helen had shattered the bike and sent him sprawling across the ground. His leather jacket had been eviscerated. At this point, Elijah’s smile is lopsided.

“Haaah… I think… my Skills… I can-”

Randidly waved his hand to stop the squat man from continuing. “Words aren’t what I’m looking for, you know. It’s your image. I can feel you struggling to answer that question. You don’t know what you want. Which is why… I’m not just letting you into the Order Ducis. If you want to join, just go to the camp like everyone else. A man without conviction doesn’t deserve special treatment.”

Elijah pressed his lips together as he looked up at Randidly. At the very least, Randidly was impressed by the balding man’s ability to the Weight that he was releasing; by the end of Elijah’s ‘spar’ with Helen, he wasn’t bothering to restrain his aura at all. Yet still, the man laid on his back and stared intently upward at Randidly. He met his gaze directly.

“I…” Elijah lifted himself up on his elbows. “I have a way with people. And System images are important, but so is image. And I have a gift for understanding how to convince others. Do you know what most people think about the Order Ducis? About you? With my help, you’ll be able to spin-”

“I don’t need someone who doesn’t know himself inside the Order Ducis,” Randidly said slowly. His eyes were unfocused, feeling the vague curves of the image of this man. There were several bright and impressive aspects within Elijah Frank. More than anyone else Randidly had meant, Elijah carried a very shallow pool of significance within his body that spoke to the intensity of his personal desires. But that significance was tied more to the murky depths of his image than the lofty aspirations. “What I’m trying to build… is something that I hope will endure after… after I go. It cannot be hollow.”

“I’m not hollow,” Elijah snapped. And for the first time since they had been speaking, his smile briefly slipped

Randidly nodded slowly and extended his right hand. “Then try the camp. Maybe my recruitment methods are unreasonable. But it’s hard to take your perspective too seriously… before you’ve even tried it.”

Instantly, Elijah’s manufactured smile slipped back into place. He grabbed Randidly’s arm and allowed himself to be effortlessly lifted to his feet. “Consider it a deal, Mr. Ghosthound. I’m really glad we had this talk. In the future, if you ever want a skybike-”

But Elijah trailed off speaking, pinned to the ground by the heaviness in Randidly’s eyes. At that moment, he released the limiters he placed on his image physicalizations. His left eye was pitch black. His torso and left arm were armored while his other body parts were ethereal. His veins pulsed with golden light and two tails flicked out behind his body.

“The Order Ducis has to endure, Mr. Frank. What comes next for Expira will not be easy.” Randidly said softly. Then he spun the man around and pushed him away.

The man quickly left the skyisland, producing another skybike to ride away. Randidly sensed the shifts in the depths of the man’s image in response to the pressure he applied, but he didn’t know what those changes meant. He sent Tatiana a message about the encounter and she thanked him for intervening; apparently Elijah Frank had been jawing her ear off with requests for special treatment since he had arrived. She was more than happy to insist that he attempt the Order Ducis training camp before providing him with any special resources.

Eventually, Randidly was pulled up from his casual research about Elijah Frank by Helen’s gaze on his face. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Helen turned her eyes back to her spear, which she had polished to a mirror-like sheen. Heiffal raised his head and looked at the sky, clearly displaying his intent to not get involved in the conversation.

Randidly rolled his eyes. “How well do you think I know you, Helen? We’ve known each other for…” He thought about it. “Shit, it’s probably been ten years now.”

“Although you were isolated and training for half of that time.” The corner of Helen’s lips quirked upward. She put her hand on her hip and looked at Randidly. “It’s just… isn’t it a bit hypocritical? Forcing that man to face what he really wants? You of all people should know it isn’t that easy to acknowledge your own humanity.”

Randidly grimaced at the glimmer of truth in her words. “Well, even you have to admit that I’ve been pretty clear about what I’ve wanted; look at all I’ve managed to accomplish. I’ve dedicated-”

“You are talking about what you think you need, Randidly,” Helen interrupted gently. “Not what you want as an individual.”

“I-” Randidly opened his mouth to say something, but abruptly he was struck by a realization. He closed his mouth and looked at Helen for several seconds before speaking. “You’ve talked to Neveah. About… what she said to me a few days ago.”

Randidly was surprised by the deep and well-worn lines across Helen’s brow as she answered. “Of course we’ve talked about it. Did you think the rest of us are as uncommunicative as you are? Did you think that when you go radio silent on us, that we don’t talk to each other? A lot of your subordinates and acquaintances are friends. Close friends. We interact a lot outside of training. And do you think I would challenge you so often to spar if you were easier to-”

Helen didn’t continue speaking. She just hissed for several seconds, clearly annoyed. Even while Randidly was blinking in confusion, Helen jerked her chin toward Heiffal. “We are all friends. And him? Do you know what he’s been up to? During his time in his Alpha Cosmos, he has asked out Lucretia almost a hundred times. She always says no, if you were wondering-”

“You don’t need to drag me into this,” Heiffal mumbled and kept his eyes up on the stars.

“-you might be the force that brought everyone together, but nowadays, you are just the one that all of us worry about. The rest of us spend our free time actually living our lives. As you alter yourself so you can fucking…!” Helen trailed off in another long his. Her shoulders were shaking.

Then she shook her head. “I… apologize. This is fucking stressful, knowing how big of a fight you are picking with the Nexus. We are walking a tightrope, and I’m not… I can’t improve fast enough to matter and I just…!”

Helen brought her hand up to her face and pressed her pointer finger and thumb over her tear ducts. She sucked in a ragged breath.

The silence stretched until Randidly sighed. “What do you want me to say?”

“Nothing,” Helen whispered. “I just want you to be able to answer the question you posed to Elijah. Because you are right about one thing; what you are trying to build won’t hold up if its core is hollow. And compared to that bikeboy… how important are you to the Order Ducis, Randidly?”

Randidly opened his mouth to respond but Grim Intuition picked up movement; a new individual was approaching Randidly’s skyisland that was shrouded in silver mist. Unlike the other arrivals on this night, this one didn’t take a confident path. Their flight meandered back and forth, riding on an inconsistent-if-persistent Scrawl.

Randidly pressed his fingers to his temples at the distraction. Something inside of him trembled as this person approached, in a way that he hadn’t experienced in years. Randidly saw too much of himself in this person, of the version of himself that had gladly followed Shal to his homeworld to pay back a debt. That… purity and naivety was difficult for him to handle directly. So Randidly gathered his Willpower and flowed through the silver moonlight spirits. Ripples spread outward, screening-

Helen kicked Randidly in the back, breaking his concentration. “Let him in, Randidly. And then I’ll let the topic drop.”

Randidly pressed his lips together. But ultimately, the wall of moonlight spirits dissipated.

Todd passed through the ethereal silver screen and stumbled as he tried to land on the edge of the skyisland. He barely caught himself from eating dirt and then twisted around to scan the misty surroundings to see if anyone noticed. Randidly felt his mouth curving into a smile, even though his heart tightened painfully at the sight. Helen and Heiffal moved to the other side of the skyisland even as Randidly spun the mist around him to open up a tunnel in front of Todd. He produced some wood and started a small fire.

Todd approached slowly. His eyes kept flicking to Randidly and then away. Fire, Randidly, misty surroundings, starry sky, Randidly, fire Randidly. Todd’s emotions switched from one thing to the next, more quickly than he could follow.

“So you’re… like the Ghosthound,” Todd said awkwardly when he joined Randidly in sitting next to the fire.

Randidly nodded. He wondered why Helen wanted him to have this conversation. The fire crackled between them. “Yeah.”

“Like Randidly Ghosthound. The one who made Kharon and everything.” Todd continued. He hurried through his words. “A man so strong that you fought all of Donnyton and won twice.”

Why is this so hard…? Todd’s words were waves and Randidly felt like a sandcastle. “Yeah.”

“So I had a bunch of fun or whatever. Flying on your surfboard. But… you aren’t staying for the Calamity, right? You… need to go.” Todd spoke even more quickly now. And he no longer looked at Randidly. “Because… because of the Great Enemy. So its not a big deal that we can’t hang out anymore or talk about Scrawls and things. Because you have to do this. You don’t have any choice.”

Todd trailed off, as though he had run out of words. The silver moonlight spirits swirled around them. Somehow, Randidly hated how he could feel so much significance gathering from this strained moment.

I don’t want to be the type of person who can only feel the benefits of certain actions. Randidly shook himself slightly. Even if I am becoming something different… I still need to live and feel.

“It’s not a big deal,” Todd said again. “But… can you just tell me… is the Great Enemy really that strong? That you really have to go? Like… what’s the Great Enemy like?”

Randidly closed his eyes and recalled the massive crystalized Aether mountain range that sealed the body of Elhume. Then he also saw that horrifying darkness at the base of the shaft that called to him. “It’s… so massive I sometimes don’t even know how to fight back.”

“I knew it.” Todd whispered. “Are you ever… afraid?”

Randidly truly looked at Todd then. He saw his thick glasses and his small shoulders. And to his surprise, the emotional turmoil in his chest began to clear. The words seemed to change after they were spoken, twisted by Todd’s image into a new shape.

‘I’m afraid,’ He said, staring intently at the fire the entire time he was speaking.

Randidly reached his arm out and pressed a hand on Todd’s shoulder. “Maybe a little… but didn’t you say that someday, you’d found your own Wandering City? That made me feel a lot better. Because… because I know I’m not fighting alone. No matter how scary the Great Enemy is… even if I struggle… you have my back, right?”

‘We aren’t alone,’ was Randidly’s response, as well as he could articulate it. The significance between them swirled and thickened.

“Well…” Todd frowned. “It might take me a few years, and the Calamity is only a few months away, so... “

Randidly’s mouth twitched. Somehow, it doesn’t seem like he was hearing the same subtext that I was...